Warriors 1 – Into the Wild

Erin Hunter's Into the Wild is the first Warriors book, a forest fantasy for 10 year olds about a well-fed house cat who can't stop dreaming of hunting.

What happens

It opens before Rusty appears at all. The forest is divided between four Clans of cats living wild, and on a moonlit night two of those Clans are tearing into each other over a stretch of rock they both claim. Claws out, a nose sliced open, a she-cat pinned on her belly. ThunderClan retreats.

Back at camp, Bluestar, their leader, sits up worrying. There aren't enough young cats coming through and the Clan can't defend what it holds. Then a star falls, and the medicine cat reads it for her. Fire alone can save our Clan.

And then, in a hot kitchen somewhere else entirely, a ginger tom called Rusty wakes up from a dream about a mouse he didn't catch. There's dry food in his bowl. There's a collar with a bell on it. And on the other side of the garden fence there's a wood he isn't supposed to go into.

You can guess where this is heading, and honestly, guessing is half the fun.

What makes these books so sticky is the world. Cats have ranks, apprentices, mentors, a code of laws and dead ancestors who send messages through the stars. They call cars monsters and roads Thunderpaths and humans Twolegs, and nothing stops to explain any of it. Your reader picks it up the way they'd pick up the rules of a playground game, and then they own it. That's usually the point where a parent discovers there are dozens more.

A word about the fighting. The prologue is a proper battle and the book doesn't soften it. There's blood on the rocks, a deep gash, teeth in a hind leg. Warriors die in this series, and some of those deaths are mysterious. Most ten year olds take this in their stride and it's exactly why they love it. But if animals being hurt is a line in your house, this series will cross it early and keep crossing it.

What to read next

The one that follows is Fire and Ice, and it's the same forest with winter coming on. A whole Clan has gone missing, there isn't enough prey to go round, and the cats who are left can't be sure which of them to trust.