A Real Page Turner
We’ve discovered chapter books at our house this winter. Chapter books serve as a bridge between simple readers and Harry Potter. It’s been fascinating to see which children are drawn to which series and why.
I wasn’t so surprised that my son’s friends are picking up Star Wars and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I’ve seen the advertising on these franchises; I’ve heard interviews with a number of children’s authors and I work in my son’s school library enough to know these are the hot items.
I suspected my son would probably be delighted by any kind of juvenile humor centered on bodily functions or a wide variety of shoot-‘em-up bad guy versus good guy stories. But somehow, left to his own devices, he’s found a series of books called Warriors. When he first mentioned the series, I imagined Native American braves or fierce soldiers. But, no. The book jacket features quite lovely illustrations of cats. That’s because the 10-plus book series tells the story of warrior cats. Seriously.
One page talks about how so-and-so maintains his silky coat and lolls in the sunshine. The next page has him ferociously fighting an enemy cat to the death. I struggle to think of an odder coupling. Warriors who are cats. Cats who are warriors.
Like many families, we have a cat. We watch her pounce on dust motes and chase imaginary mice and curl up purring on the bed. She’s sweet and domesticated and somewhat independent. This is our third family cat. We have a familiarity with their ways. Cats seem safe somehow.
In any other context, I’d hesitate to let my very sensitive, very literal boy read about murder and mayhem. I’ve vetoed movies that are too adult, comics with too much graphic violence and toy guns. But somehow, the feline characters seem to temper the violence in this series. And, they make us wonder, with no shortage of silliness, about our own cat’s secret (warrior?) life.
The author bio says Erin Hunter writes these books because she really loves cats. I hypothesize that Erin Hunter is a very smart woman who likes cats and knows mothers like me don’t often allow their kids to read stories of kidnapping and power-grabbing without a good reason. But stories of cats? Where’s the harm in that?
Malcom - our warrior cat - protecting her boy, like a good warrior cat should.