No. 22: Mattimeo

Mattimeo by Brian Jacques

I must be on some kind of books of my youth nostalgia kick because I have been reading the Little House on the Prarie series and now I am working on the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. This is one of my most favorite series from when I was a kid - I don't remember when I started reading it, maybe 5th grade, but I read the books consistently through high school and perodically since then. And my brother Matt read them all and loved them too - they really are not girl books per se, more action and battles than anything. And now I found Mattimeo at the thrift store on buy one get one free day so I bought it and got another in the series for free! And I remember that I still love them and now I want to find them all - both to read myself and to collect for the girl's book collection. Which, by the way, is becoming quite extensive. I should do a post on it someday.

Anyway, Mattimeo, this is the 3rd or 4th in the series. Redwall Abbey is attacked by a band of villians lead by a masked Fox known as Slagar. Slagar and his band are slavers and kidnap Mattimeo (son of the great warrior mouse Matthias) and some of his friends with the intent to sell them into slavery to a polecat (not sure what that is) and his evil rat minions. When the kidnapping is discovered, Matthias, as the warrior of Redwall, and some other brave animals including a hare, a hedgehog, a squirrel, some shrews and a badger, go off to the rescue. And there are many battles, an earthquake, a poetry spouting owl, and delicious sounding food, funny accents, and general awesomeness. Definitely recommended!!!

After I read this book I looked up the author's website to see how many there are currently in the series (and the answer is A LOT) but I was very sad to discover that Brian Jacques has very recently passed away. He was definitely an amazing and prolific author.