Warriors Roundup

This series seems to have a bit of everything that makes up a good story. There's an invented world in which cats live in clans in the forest. They live by their own warrior code, which values honor, courage, respect, and discipline. Among the clan, there are loyalties and enemies, alliances and betrayals. Even StarClan - a spiritual clan in the night sky - provides a supernatural flair. The series follows a "kittypet" - a cat born in the human world and raised as a pet - who gives up his life of comfort to join ThunderClan.

Throughout the epic tale, there is action and mystery, love and hatred. Friendships form, relationships get complicated, some cats leave their clan, others die. It's a remarkably compelling read, and I was surprised by how much it drew me in.

• Into the Wild (#1) ★★★★★
• Fire and Ice (#2) ★★★★
• Forest of Secrets (#3) ★★★★½
• Rising Storm (#4) ★★★
• A Dangerous Path (#5) ★★★
• The Darkest Hour (#6) ★★★★★

After reading this series, I absolutely did not feel ready to leave the forest! I was thrilled to find out that there is actually a huge Warriors franchise. There are series about the next generations of cats, and also Super Editions featuring characters from the original series. I don't know how many other Warriors-related books I'll read, but of course I'll list whatever I do read here.

Super Editions

• Firestar's Quest (#1) ★★★½
• Yellowfang's Secret (#5) ★★½
• Tallstar's Revenge (#6) ★★★½

Firestar's Quest (Warriors Super Edition #1) by Erin Hunter

★★★½

*** Warning: This review contains spoilers!! ***

Okay... I don't know if I'm actually starting to get tired of the series, or if maybe I shouldn't have read two other super editions before reading this one, but I wasn't as blown away by this book as I was by the original series.

Even though this was the first super edition published, I actually read it after having already read Yellowfang's Secret and Tallstar's Revenge. In this book, the big quest involves Firestar going on a long journey, with Sandstorm accompanying him. But I actually found Tallstar's travels - which he undertook alone - much more interesting, making Firestar and Sandstorm's trip somewhat less impressive. In Yellowfang's Secret, ShadowClan tried to take down a bunch of rats, but despite being a large, well-trained clan, they actually lost the first battle. In light of that, it seemed unlikely that a young SkyClan - with fewer cats and less battle experience - would be able to defeat a sea of evil rats that had previously dominated over the first SkyClan.

I really liked the whole idea of Firestar building a clan from scratch, but many of the supporting details bothered me. From the beginning, it just didn't make sense that StarClan would allow four clans to gang up on and chase out the fifth clan. I just don't see how StarClan could have allowed such a major violation of the warrior code! Then, once Firestar understood his quest, I was annoyed that he was so wishy-washy about it. Sandstorm had to keep reassuring him that he was doing the right thing. I think it would have been more in character for Firestorm to complete his quest with conviction, never wavering from the goal, even if he felt unsure about himself along the way. Furthermore, as soon as the Shining / Whispering Cave was discovered, it was so clear that it ought to have served the same purpose as the Moonstone - a place for cats to speak with their warrior ancestors. Yet, in the end, the SkyClan cats communed with StarClan at Skyrock - so what was the point of the cave? Even when Echosong came along, it still wasn't clear. Why could some cats hear voices, and others couldn't? Would the cave only be used by medicine cats? Finally, I really thought Rainfur should have given a life to SkyClan's new leader!

Even the ending was unsatisfying for me. I wanted to read a bit about how the other clan members - and the other clans - reacted when Firestar told them the whole history of the fifth clan. I am assuming Firestar would have shared the entire story at a Gathering, since it was not actually a ThunderClan secret and was information that all clans were entitled to know. In fact, in hindsight, I think Firestar should have told the other clans before he left, giving every clan a chance - if they wanted it - to go with him to help repair the damage that all their warrior ancestors had done. Seems to me that once Firestar returned, the other clans might not have been happy, and might have accused him of trying to form an alliance with another clan!

But, I did enjoy reading about the process by which Firestar built the clan, having to recruit members and teach them about the warrior code, and having to be patient as some lessons couldn't be learned except by experience.

The Secrets of Droon Series by Tony Abbott

★★★½

I usually prefer to rate books individually, but this series seems to be so much like the Magic Tree House series that I think I will rate this series similarly - as a series.

So far I've only read the first book, The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet, and I will update this review if anything new worth mentioning comes up as I read additional books.

I came across this series at the library while looking for a chapter book series for Sebastien. When Isabelle first started to read independently, she got hooked into reading by devouring the Ivy + Bean series and the Rainbow Magic series, among others. There were so many beginner chapter books about little girls or fairies or magical animals, that Isabelle never had to look far to find a new book to read. Now that Sebastien is ready for chapter books, however, I am having a hard time finding an appropriately leveled non-girly series that will interest him! The Magic Tree House books would be an easy choice, except that we already read most of them together out loud, and he's not interested in going back to continue the series on his own.

Enter The Secrets of Droon. So far, it seems to be just like the Magic Tree House, only different. Instead of a brother and sister pair, it's a trio of friends consisting of two boys and a girl. Instead of a tree house that magically transports the children to both real and imaginary places, there's a magical staircase that leads to the fictional world of Droon. The kids have their adventures, and when they return to their own world, it's as if no time has passed at all.

Like the Magic Tree House books, these books are divided into short chapters, and the reading level is perfect for emerging independent readers. Oddly, this first book is also similar to the early Magic Tree House books in its inexplicably cavalier use of sentence fragments. For example:

Page 4: He stepped into the other side of the basement. The room on the left side of the stairs. The side his father was going to remodel.

Anyway, Sebastien happily read the first two books of the series, and he's keen on reading more. We'll see if it holds his interest!

Update - 12/10/14: Well, I've just finished book #11, and I think I will upgrade my rating to 3 1/2 stars. While the books continue to have a bothersome number of incomplete sentences, I have been impressed by the overarching narrative that drives the series. In fact, there are two major story lines, perhaps somehow related: the effort to defeat the evil Lord Sparr, and the effort to find Keeah's mother and free her from an evil spell. Each book is a stand-alone adventure in which we meet new characters in Droon - sometimes a new species, sometimes an evil-doer, sometimes a friend - but at the end of each book there is always a nugget of foreshadowing about the next book. It took me a while to get through the first several books, but a friend of mine whose taste in books I respect assured me that even though the series starts kind of slow, it really is a worthy read. So, I won't give up on the series yet!