Book Review: Warriors: Into the Wild

Image from goodreads.com

Title:  Warriors: Into the Wild
Author:  Erin Hunter
Pages:  272
Publication Date:  2003
Version:  Paperback
Genre:  Young Adult Fiction

Summary Via Goodreads.com:
"For generations, four Clans of wild cats have shared the forest according to the laws laid down by their warrior ancestors. But the ThunderClan cats are in grave danger, and the sinister ShadowClan grows stronger every day. Noble warriors are dying—and some deaths are more mysterious than others.

In the midst of this turmoil appears an ordinary house cat named Rusty . . . who may turn out to be the bravest warrior of them all."

My Review:
This young adult book, by far, blew my expectations out of the water!  I had picked up this book originally to read to my son from a library book sale thinking it sounded ok.  I saw it was about cats and had to read it just because of my love of cats.

This book takes the reader into a whole new world; the world of CATS.  I must say after the first few chapters I decided I LOVED the concept of this book.  Rusty (an orange housecat) meets the aquaintence of Graypaw while he is on the outskirts of “Twoleg” territory looking for a mouse he saw from his fence.  Graypaw is an apprentice of ThunderClan, a clan of wild cats that are in the woods near the “Twoleg” homes.  Rusty soon learns that there are other clans of cats in the woods too.  Bluestar (the headcat) sees something in Rusty and tells him she will allow him to join the ThunderClan if he wishes to leave his Twolegs.  Rusty feels he has been missing something and decides that is what he should do.  When he joins the clan he is renamed Firepaw.  He is NOT welcomed into the clan by anyone except Bluestar and Graypaw (who quickly becomes Firepaw’s friend).  They call him “kittypet” and do not trust him.  Firepaw goes through much hardship to try and earn the clans trust.  The clans do not all get along and soon Firepaw sees why there are apprentices of warriors.  Firepaw soon learns the ways of the clan, but also refuses to be pushed around because of his kittypet past.

Soon there are many things that go wrong and Firepaw is left to fight for what he believes is right, which may not be what ThunderClan sees as right.  Will Firepaw get sent away before he is able to prove he can be a good warrior for the ThunderClan and can help them win the fight against the other clans?

This book draws the reader in by pure curiosity.  You can’t help but keep reading just because of the book being from the perspectives of cats.  As a cat lover and owner, I feel like I found myself looking at my own cats in a new way.  This is book one of a series of books.  I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

4 out of 5 stars.  It did take a little bit to get going, but mostly because, like all series, the author was trying to establish rapport of the characters, backgrounds of the characters, and establish the background of the story of the warrior cats.

This book will count toward my following challenges:  Off the Shelf Challenge, Read 100 Books, A to Z Challenge, 1,000,000 pages Challenge, Mount TBR Challenge, YA Challenge, Cupcakes War Challenge.