Warriors, Into the Wild: May win over reluctant readers

Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter

There have been some great animal stories written for children. Brian Jacques’s Redwall series invested woodland creatures with a valor and camaraderie straight out of Tolkien, and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows charmed with its odd blend of comedy and bittersweet nostalgia. E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web and Robert C. O’Brien’s Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh are in many ways beautiful little stories of life and loss. Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel and Watership Down by Richard Adams (though the latter was written for older audiences) gave an entirely fresh vision of the world and of humanity. At its best, anthropomorphic literature can sublimate the mere novelty of the main characters being animals and by giving us a new perspective show us different ways of looking at what it means to be humans sharing the world.

Does Warriors: Into the Wild measure up? As I’ve probably given away by my long lead-in, not really. It’s a cute little book, clearly meant for quite young (or unambitious) readers, and in one sense I will say that it does exactly what it’s supposed to. That is, the book is fast-paced, violent, and exciting, basically guaranteed to entertain its 9-12 age group and possibly win over even reluctant readers. The suspense is omnipresent (if obvious), and so overall the book really flies along. Erin Hunter (actually the nom de plume of two authors working together, but for the purposes of the review, I’ll treat “her” as one person) does very well in making the text appealing. The trouble is that there really doesn’t seem to be much to say about the book beyond “gripping for kids.” There isn’t much subtlety at work here. Into the Wild certainly can’t be read on more than one level.

The story concerns young Rusty, a kitten who abandons his human owners to run off to live in the wild with the free woods cats (one almost wonders if this was meant to be the spiritual successor to something like Tolkien’s Roverandom, giving kids a fanciful vision of the adventures of cats that go missing). Rusty discovers that four warring clans of kitties live in the forest, locked in a seemingly constant struggle for hunting grounds. There are some elements of mysticism involving each Clan leader being gifted with nine lives by StarClan (the cat variety of ancestor reverence, apparently), but the magical elements really don’t come into play a lot. Rusty is renamed Firepaw to correspond with a prophecy that begins the book (“only fire can save our clan”), and even the 9-year-olds should be feeling pleasantly superior as Firepaw wonders vaguely what on earth the prophecy could mean, as surely fire is a great enemy?

The rest of Into the Wild is an endless muddle of kitty warfare. There’s a plot involving the villainous ShadowClan trying to throw its weight around, and a scheming cat trying to murder his way to the top, but for the most part it’s all an excuse for agonizing on Firepaw’s part, broken by frequent sections of raking claws and snapping teeth, with the occasional dead kitty dropping out of the whirling dustcloud every so often.

I’m still torn, however, on whether or not Hunter’s use of this form and style is actually a bad thing. Once again, I think that younger children (particularly those who aren’t big readers in a general way) will love this. There is suspense, constant action, and a few drops of destiny. It is, and apparently has been, a recipe for success. That said, Warriors: Into the Wild is artistically unimpressive, and thematically rather bland. There certainly isn’t much to instruct or emotionally resonate here. It’s pure escapism, with little in the way of deeper meaning. Some children’s authors drop in tidbits of adult style here and there, perhaps to make the novel accessible to the parents as well, perhaps merely to challenge their young readers. Hunter, for whatever reason, does not attempt this. She writes for a certain set’s entertainment and that’s about it. Even the deaths of the cats are rarely played for emotional reaction, but slipped by quickly so as not to affect the readership overmuch. Thus the book depicts, I suppose, just what will make the readership comfortable: lots of violence with few lasting consequences for the protagonist.

I didn’t dislike the book. It was sweet at times, and I could easily see how it would appeal to children. I do feel, however, that for all the necessity of writing novels that the audience in question wants to read, Warriors: Into the Wild could have done a bit better, reached a little higher, and become something truly impressive to any age group. As the novel stands, it is what it is: adequate and not much else.