Tiny Treasury

The Sight, authored by Erin Hunter, is billed as “a dazzling feline twist on classic epic fantasy” and is the first book of an arc of the national bestselling series Warriors: The Power of Three.

Fantasy is not my thing, but I was willing to give it a whirl. After all, the praise for the series was positive. “Action-packed. Certain to please any young reader who has ever wondered what dreams of grandeur may haunt the family cat” claimed Publishers Weekly. And “A suspenseful adventure story that urges readers onward” touted ALA Booklist. Even the reviews on amazon.com were overall positive, though there was some grumbling about the original series being much better - isn’t it always?

And I like cats. I like fiction. I was ready to embrace the book.

The beginning of the book is a just over four page summary of the characters, the “allegiances” - literally a laundry list of who’s who. And the who’s who was lengthy. There are more than forty cats classified as leader, deputy, medicine cat, warriors, apprentices, queens and elders for each of four clans. This was my first inkling that I wasn’t going to love the book. As a rule, I don’t like books that require flow charts.

The book spends a lot of time setting up story lines that never seem to take off. I assume that many of the questions raised in the book will be resolved in the remaining two books of the series - and that the purpose of this book was to whet your appetite for those that follow. And herein is my second gripe: I’m not a big fan of series that purposefully set you up to buy more books. Now wait, don’t get me wrong. I like series. As a kid, I was a big fan of Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, you name it. I like stories that build on each other. But I am not crazy about those that just feel like they’re written in order to sell another book. And that’s what this feels like to me, pretty much from top to bottom.

The basic story line of the book is that three kittens from the ThunderClan (Hollykit, Jaykit and Lionkit) are set to more or less take over the next generation. Each of the the three has a special power or talent that will allow them to take their rightful place in the Clan. About halfway through, the kittens become warriors and thus change their names to Hollypaw, Jaypaw and Lionpaw. With the number of characters in the book, I’m not crazy about the switch - I’m surprised that children aged 10 (which is the recommending reading level) and up can keep them all straight…

The one aspect of the book that I did find compelling was the determination of Jaypaw to become a “medicine cat” despite his disability (I’ll let you read it to find out what it is). The underlying principles that you can do anything if you work hard enough, and the admonition to Hollypaw (Jaypaw’s sister) to follow your heart and do what it is that you love and not what you feel is simply your lot in life are good lessons for children to learn.

But all of the good principles and plot twists couldn’t make this an enjoyable read for me. I couldn’t find that moment in the book where it all clicked for me and made me want to read more. Instead, I found myself flipping the pages backwards trying to recall which cat was which, and wondering when it was going to end…

Fans of the books (and there are a number of them despite my take on the book) can visit the web site to find out more information about the series, the characters and the authors. That’s right, authors plural. Despite the name “Erin Hunter” on the book, the series is actually penned by a group of three children’s authors, Victoria Holmes, Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry. You can read their bios on the site.

Warrior Cats, Power of Three, Warriors: The Sight, Erin Hunter, Victoria Holmes, Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry