I could not put this book down! Matthias's son Mattimeo is mousenapped by a familiar character and Matthias will stop at nothing to rescue him. He is helped by characters such as Jess squirrel, Orlando the Axe, and , of course, Basil Stag Hare. A real page-turner. ( )

Pre09:

Probably my favorite of the Redwall. Less about some riddles and more about adventure and coming of age. I really like the travels and the characters were lovable. ( )

Read this aloud to Kirk. It's the first of this series that we've read, but not the last. Highly entertaining & engaging adventure story. It uses the same cast as "Wind in the Willows" but in this series, many of the woodland creatures pack weapons an

I think that out of all of the Redwall series this is the most amazing book of all. The son of Matthias the warrior is kidnapped by an old enemy of Redwall who you would never suspect to see again. ( )

Mattimeo by Brian Jacques, 432 pages

This book takes place in a fictional abbey, Redwall Abbey, in the middle of Mossflower Wood and on the trail of a slave line. Is most likely takes place around the medieval ages of swords and shields and things of that sort.

The main characters in this story are Mathias, warrior mouse of Redwall, Slagar the Cruel, Constance the badger, Abbot Mordalfus, Basil Stag Hare, Jess Squirrel, Orlando the Axe, Cheek the otter, and Mattimeo, son of the warrior. Brian Jacques has a very special talent to make his characters very relatable and makes them seem so real and believable. The character that really appealed to me, though, was Mattimeo because in the beginning of the story he is this spoiled little mouse that has everything and has never worked a day in his life but towards the middle and ending of the book he matures very quickly and proves that he can be and is the son of the warrior of Redwall. I can really relate to the characters in the story, especially to Constance, even though she is a girl, she sticks up for anybody and is the type of “person” that you can count on to be there for you, and overall just protects everybody. I feel as if I have done almost everything the characters have done, except for the fighting in wars. I believe everyone has done the same as some of these characters, that’s what makes these characters seem so real.

The main conflict of this story occurs when Slagar the fox gets into the abbey and disguises himself as “Lunar Stellaris, Lord of light and dark” just to take the little ones, especially Mattimeo for a slave line to get his “revenge” after what Redwall did to him when he was a child. When Mathias and his friends go out to save their abbey’s little ones out of the clutches of Slagar, another problem occurs when a raven by the name of General Ironbeak decides to take over Redwall. For Mathias and his friends, the trail is rough in the beginning because Slagar is moving at a very fast pace and has the warrior and his allies confused on what the fox’s next move will be, but everything changes when they meet the little otter by the name of Cheek, whose name describes his behavior. However, when they reach Slagar and his band, they are forced retreat to a cave, which seemed to be a safe cover from all the fighting until Slagar ordered his band to cause it to cave in and trap the warriors. While Mattimeo revolts against his captor, which works at first but then gets recaptured before he has time to get to his father. The conflict was resolved they finally overthrow Slagar and his band and the evil of Malkariss and return to the abbey, who by the help of some winged friends win the abbey back from Ironbeak, with their young and some new faces that had no other place to go.

What I liked most about this book was the use of imagery in the story. You really felt as if you were part of the story; it wasn’t hard to imagine yourself in or part of the action, the exhilaration, depression, and excitement. All the emotions the characters felt, you felt. If I could change anything in the story, I wouldn’t, it’s that good of a book. I learned a lot of things from this book, but the most important was that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone and you should always have faith in yourself and others because if you don’t everything becomes hopeless. Everybody should read this book, they will be hooked on it after the first page. I give it a five star, two thumbs up rating. I’m sure you will too. ( )