Warriors!

For anyone who wants to read for pleasure, the Warriors series is great! They were written by Erin  Hunter, who is actually 6 people who all write the books together. This means they can produce them much faster than a single writer could. Sometimes there's a different feel for some of the books, since they've been written by a different person.  There's 5 series so far, and all of them consist of 6 books. They are beautifully written, and despite the characters being cats, they all have human traits such as loyalty, love, frustration, courage, envy, anger and compassion.

Erin Hunter (Cherith and Kate, the co-authors of the Warriors series) have always loved cats and writing fantasy stories. They are both interested in ancient forms of worship, such as astrology and stone circles. They use their knowledge to enhance their stories and the cats' own mythology.

Warriors is a thrilling tale of feral cats, surviving in the wilderness. They live by a noble warrior code, under the guidance of their leader and their starry ancestors. A lot of the cats are good role models, but among them are villains, just like real life. Warriors is full of mystery and secrets for the reader to figure out. However, it'll only make sense if you read the series in order. If you don't, they'll seem really confusing and not worth reading. All of the cats belong to different "clans". Each clan has its own talents, abilities and loyalties. This is just like human clans and cultures. Often humans fight because they can't agree on things like religion or race. The warriors fight about the exact same things, so the books make us think about cultural differences and prejudice, and eventually, overcome them so that they can all live in peace together.

Warriors isn't just about fighting, it's also about healing. Each clan has at least one medicine cat, who heals the clan, and also interprets prophecies given by the clans' ancestors. The books have taught me about the healing properties of herbs such as marigold, which stops infection, poppy seeds, which help pain, borage helps milk production in mothers (queens) and watermint helps headaches and fever.

Cats that have died aren't forgotten, because they live another life in the stars, watching over their friends and family. This is just like humans, when we lose someone we love, we often imagine that they have gone to a better place, but they have never really left us and are always watching over us.

Warriors does have quite a bit of violence and death and can also be scary and sad. Therefor I would recommend the books for children over 10 years old. Younger children might be upset, or struggle with their emotions.
If you love cats, fantasy and excitement, then Warriors is for you! Be warned though, you'll spend many hours just reading for pleasure!

See if you can beat my record of reading a whole warriors book in a night!