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Moonrise (Warriors)
Encyclopedia
Moonrise is a children's fantasy novel, the second book in the Warriors: The New Prophecy series. The book, which follows the adventures of four groups of anthropomorphic wild cats (called Clans), was written by Erin Hunter
(a pseudonym used by Victoria Holmes
, Cherith Baldry
, Kate Cary
, and Tui T. Sutherland
), with cover art by Wayne McLoughlin
. Moonrise follows six cats, Brambleclaw, Squirrelpaw, Crowpaw, Feathertail, Stormfur, and Tawnypelt, as they return to their forest home from a journey to the ocean. They travel through the mountains, where they meet the Tribe of Rushing Water, a new group of cats first introduced in this novel. The Tribe cats are being attacked by a savage mountain lion called Sharptooth. Although reluctant at first, the Clan cats agree to help the Tribe get rid of Sharptooth. Series editor Victoria Holmes
drew inspiration from locations such as the New Forest
and the Scottish Highlands.
Moonrise has been released in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats, and has been translated into French
, Russian
, Chinese
, Japanese
, and German
. The book received mostly positive comments from reviews published in Booklist
and Horn Book Review, which praised the plot and cliffhanger ending. However, a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews
criticized the characters' confusing names and the writing style. Moonrise held the number two spot on The New York Times Best Seller list for children's chapter books for two weeks.
. Loch Lomond
is another location that influenced the setting of Moonrise. Some other sources of inspiration for the series include the works of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien
and C. S. Lewis
.
Cherith Baldry
, one of the people who write using the pen name Erin Hunter
, said that it was hard to write the death of Feathertail at the end of Moonrise because they had to present it in a way suitable for the book's younger target audience.
Moonrise is written in an alternating third-person limited narrative
, with the exception of the prologue, which is written in a third-person objective perspective. The point-of-view alternates between the characters Stormfur, who is with the questing cats, and Leafpaw, describing her experiences as the destruction of the forest begins.
, Tui Sutherland
, and series editor Victoria Holmes
. The pseudonym is used so that the individual novels in the series would not be shelved in different places in libraries. Victoria Holmes chose the name Erin because she liked the name, and Hunter because it matched the theme of feral cats. It also ensured that the books were shelved near those of Brian Jacques
, an author that the writers, collectively known as "the Erins", liked.
Moonrise was published as a hardcover by HarperCollins
on July 25, 2005, in Canada, and August 2, 2005, in the US and UK. The book was released as a paperback on July 25, 2006, and as an e-book
on November 6, 2007. Moonrise has been translated into various foreign languages: it was released in Russian on October 18, 2005, by OLMA Media Group, in Japanese on March 18, 2009, by Komine Shoten, and in French on March 5, 2009, by Pocket Jeunesse. The Chinese version of Moonrise was published on April 30, 2009, by Morning Star Group. It was packaged with a 3-D trading card depicting Feathertail, with some biographical information on the reverse side. The German translation was published on February 19, 2011, by Verlagsgruppe Beltz.
The main characters each come from one of four Clans: ThunderClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan, and WindClan. All Clan cats share a belief in StarClan, a group of spirits usually represented by the stars, who are their ancestors and provide them with guidance. The Clans also follow identical hierarchy structures: Clans each have one leader, a deputy who is second-in-command, and a medicine cat who heals Clanmates in addition to communicating with StarClan. The bulk of each Clan consists of warriors, who carry out hunting for food, patrol borders, and fight battles when they occur. Apprentices are younger cats who are in training to become warriors, or more rarely, medicine cats.
, StarClan, the warrior cats' ancestors, sent four cats (one from each Clan—Brambleclaw, Crowpaw, Feathertail, and Tawnypelt) on a quest. Squirrelpaw and Stormfur went with them. At the end of their journey, they arrived at the ocean and found an unusually intelligent badger named Midnight. Midnight told the cats that the Clans would have to leave their forest home and find a new place to live, as humans were going to cut down the forest and build a new "Thunderpath" (the cats' word for a road).
On the return journey, the Clan cats decide, after consultation with Midnight, to go through a mountain range which they had avoided in their initial travels. There, they meet a Clan-like group of cats called the Tribe of Rushing Water, who have their own set of ancestors: the Tribe of Endless Hunting. The Tribe takes the traveling cats in and gives them food and shelter. The Clan cats discover that the Tribe cats have a prophecy: a silver cat will save them from Sharptooth, a savage lion-like creature that has been killing many members of the Tribe. The Tribe thinks that Stormfur is the silver cat from the prophecy, and he is therefore expected to protect the Tribe from Sharptooth. Although reluctant at first, Stormfur eventually agrees to help the Tribe.
Together, the Clan cats succeed in leading Sharptooth into a trap in a cave. However, their plan to poison Sharptooth goes awry, and Feathertail jumps up to the roof of the cave onto a stalactite
, causing it to fall. Both Feathertail and Sharptooth are killed by the impact. The Tribe then realizes that Feathertail was the silver cat in their prophecy, not her brother Stormfur, as they had previously thought. The five remaining cats then continue their journey. The book ends with Squirrelpaw noticing Highstones, which is at the edge of WindClan territory; they are almost home.
Meanwhile, back in the forest, the Clans begin to experience the effects of the humans' intrusion into their territories, including lost and poisoned prey, destruction of the forest and cats being abducted.
Moonrise is followed by Dawn
, which details the events following the questing cats' return to the forest, and their subsequent journey to find a new home.
, praised Moonrise for its "cliffhanger" ending "that will leave readers eager for the next installment", as well as the suspenseful possibility of the destruction of the forest. A reviwer for Horn Book Review gave a positive review, praising the plot, characters, and writing. The reviewer stated that "Hunter successfully weaves character, plot, and good writing into another readable story". Hilary Williamson, writing for BookLoons, gave Moonrise a positive review, calling it "exciting" and a "gripping epic". A reviewer for Kirkus Reviews
criticized the novel for mundane writing, easy-to-confuse names, and the use of the words "meowed" and "mewed" instead of "said". The reviewer thought that the plot was "marred by the same preciousness of its predecessor", but praised the plot for its "enhanced complexity" and suspenseful writing, saying that "a small plot twist is refreshing and suspense builds steadily towards the final installment". The novel has also been mentioned for containing "magic, fantasy, and heroic adventure", and was recommended to fans of Harry Potter
as possible reading material after that series' end. Moonrise reached The New York Times bestseller list for children's chapter books, holding the number two spot for two weeks. It was also ranked 121st on USA Today
s bestseller list during the week of August 11, 2005. The work was also a success in Canada, reaching number seven on the Leader-Post children's bestseller list, and remaining in the top 15 for seven weeks. In a Fairfield, Greater Victoria store, Moonrise was reportedly more popular than Harry Potter.
Erin Hunter
Erin Hunter is a pseudonym used by the authors Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and Tui Sutherland, along with editor Victoria Holmes. Under this pen name, they have written two series of books. They are best known for the Warriors series, but the authors have also created another similar series called...
(a pseudonym used by Victoria Holmes
Victoria Holmes
Victoria "Vicky" Holmes comes up with the ideas for the New York Times Bestselling Warriors books, consisting of four miniseries: Warriors, Warriors: The New Prophecy, Warriors: Power of Three, and Warriors: Omen of the Stars, written by Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and new addition Tui Sutherland...
, Cherith Baldry
Cherith Baldry
Cherith Baldry is a writer of fantasy fiction. She grew up on a farm and worked with house cats. For a while, she took up the job of teaching, but gave up in order to become a full time writer. She currently lives in Reigate, England. Baldry collaborates with Kate Cary, Tui T...
, Kate Cary
Kate Cary
Kate Cary is one of the authors of the Warriors novel series, a story about wild cats, which she writes under the pen name of Erin Hunter. The other authors who also write the Warriors novel series under the pen name Erin Hunter are Cherith Baldry, Victoria Holmes, and Tui T. Sutherland...
, and Tui T. Sutherland
Tui T. Sutherland
Tui T. Sutherland, also known as T. T. Sutherland is a children's book author who has also written under the pen name Heather Williams...
), with cover art by Wayne McLoughlin
Wayne McLoughlin
Wayne McLoughlin is a Welsh-born artist who dedicates his drawings to nature. He began as a young explorer in Hampstead Heath, London, and later, in the swamps of northern Florida. McLoughlin first worked on creating illustrated humor parodies for national magazines, including Esquire, Omni, Next,...
. Moonrise follows six cats, Brambleclaw, Squirrelpaw, Crowpaw, Feathertail, Stormfur, and Tawnypelt, as they return to their forest home from a journey to the ocean. They travel through the mountains, where they meet the Tribe of Rushing Water, a new group of cats first introduced in this novel. The Tribe cats are being attacked by a savage mountain lion called Sharptooth. Although reluctant at first, the Clan cats agree to help the Tribe get rid of Sharptooth. Series editor Victoria Holmes
Victoria Holmes
Victoria "Vicky" Holmes comes up with the ideas for the New York Times Bestselling Warriors books, consisting of four miniseries: Warriors, Warriors: The New Prophecy, Warriors: Power of Three, and Warriors: Omen of the Stars, written by Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and new addition Tui Sutherland...
drew inspiration from locations such as the New Forest
New Forest
The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....
and the Scottish Highlands.
Moonrise has been released in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats, and has been translated into French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. The book received mostly positive comments from reviews published in Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
and Horn Book Review, which praised the plot and cliffhanger ending. However, a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
criticized the characters' confusing names and the writing style. Moonrise held the number two spot on The New York Times Best Seller list for children's chapter books for two weeks.
Inspirations, influences, and style
The authors of the series drew inspiration from several natural locations in the United Kingdom. The four Clans (WindClan, RiverClan, ThunderClan, and ShadowClan) share a fictional forest based on England's New ForestNew Forest
The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....
. Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch, lying on the Highland Boundary Fault. It is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area. The lake contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles, although the lake itself is smaller than many Irish...
is another location that influenced the setting of Moonrise. Some other sources of inspiration for the series include the works of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
and C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
.
Cherith Baldry
Cherith Baldry
Cherith Baldry is a writer of fantasy fiction. She grew up on a farm and worked with house cats. For a while, she took up the job of teaching, but gave up in order to become a full time writer. She currently lives in Reigate, England. Baldry collaborates with Kate Cary, Tui T...
, one of the people who write using the pen name Erin Hunter
Erin Hunter
Erin Hunter is a pseudonym used by the authors Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and Tui Sutherland, along with editor Victoria Holmes. Under this pen name, they have written two series of books. They are best known for the Warriors series, but the authors have also created another similar series called...
, said that it was hard to write the death of Feathertail at the end of Moonrise because they had to present it in a way suitable for the book's younger target audience.
Moonrise is written in an alternating third-person limited narrative
Third-person limited narrative
The third-person limited is a narrative mode in which the reader experiences the story through the senses and thoughts of just one character. This is almost always the main character—e.g., Gabriel in James Joyce's "The Dead", the titular character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown",...
, with the exception of the prologue, which is written in a third-person objective perspective. The point-of-view alternates between the characters Stormfur, who is with the questing cats, and Leafpaw, describing her experiences as the destruction of the forest begins.
Publication history
Moonrise was written by Erin Hunter, a pseudonym used by authors Cherith Baldry, Kate CaryKate Cary
Kate Cary is one of the authors of the Warriors novel series, a story about wild cats, which she writes under the pen name of Erin Hunter. The other authors who also write the Warriors novel series under the pen name Erin Hunter are Cherith Baldry, Victoria Holmes, and Tui T. Sutherland...
, Tui Sutherland
Tui T. Sutherland
Tui T. Sutherland, also known as T. T. Sutherland is a children's book author who has also written under the pen name Heather Williams...
, and series editor Victoria Holmes
Victoria Holmes
Victoria "Vicky" Holmes comes up with the ideas for the New York Times Bestselling Warriors books, consisting of four miniseries: Warriors, Warriors: The New Prophecy, Warriors: Power of Three, and Warriors: Omen of the Stars, written by Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and new addition Tui Sutherland...
. The pseudonym is used so that the individual novels in the series would not be shelved in different places in libraries. Victoria Holmes chose the name Erin because she liked the name, and Hunter because it matched the theme of feral cats. It also ensured that the books were shelved near those of Brian Jacques
Brian Jacques
James Brian Jacques was an English author best known for his Redwall series of novels and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. He also completed two collections of short stories entitled The Ribbajack & Other Curious Yarns and Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales.-Biography:Brian Jacques was born...
, an author that the writers, collectively known as "the Erins", liked.
Moonrise was published as a hardcover by HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
on July 25, 2005, in Canada, and August 2, 2005, in the US and UK. The book was released as a paperback on July 25, 2006, and as an e-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
on November 6, 2007. Moonrise has been translated into various foreign languages: it was released in Russian on October 18, 2005, by OLMA Media Group, in Japanese on March 18, 2009, by Komine Shoten, and in French on March 5, 2009, by Pocket Jeunesse. The Chinese version of Moonrise was published on April 30, 2009, by Morning Star Group. It was packaged with a 3-D trading card depicting Feathertail, with some biographical information on the reverse side. The German translation was published on February 19, 2011, by Verlagsgruppe Beltz.
Setting and characters
Moonrise takes place in several locations inspired by similar locales in the United Kingdom. With the exception of a disused mine, the forest in which the cats live is based largely on the New Forest. In addition, parts of the story take place by the ocean and in a fictitious mountain range.The main characters each come from one of four Clans: ThunderClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan, and WindClan. All Clan cats share a belief in StarClan, a group of spirits usually represented by the stars, who are their ancestors and provide them with guidance. The Clans also follow identical hierarchy structures: Clans each have one leader, a deputy who is second-in-command, and a medicine cat who heals Clanmates in addition to communicating with StarClan. The bulk of each Clan consists of warriors, who carry out hunting for food, patrol borders, and fight battles when they occur. Apprentices are younger cats who are in training to become warriors, or more rarely, medicine cats.
Plot
In the previous book in the series, MidnightMidnight (Warriors)
Midnight is a children's fantasy novel, the first book in Erin Hunter's Warriors: The New Prophecy series. Following The Darkest Hour and Firestar's Quest, and preceding Moonrise, it was released May 10, 2005...
, StarClan, the warrior cats' ancestors, sent four cats (one from each Clan—Brambleclaw, Crowpaw, Feathertail, and Tawnypelt) on a quest. Squirrelpaw and Stormfur went with them. At the end of their journey, they arrived at the ocean and found an unusually intelligent badger named Midnight. Midnight told the cats that the Clans would have to leave their forest home and find a new place to live, as humans were going to cut down the forest and build a new "Thunderpath" (the cats' word for a road).
On the return journey, the Clan cats decide, after consultation with Midnight, to go through a mountain range which they had avoided in their initial travels. There, they meet a Clan-like group of cats called the Tribe of Rushing Water, who have their own set of ancestors: the Tribe of Endless Hunting. The Tribe takes the traveling cats in and gives them food and shelter. The Clan cats discover that the Tribe cats have a prophecy: a silver cat will save them from Sharptooth, a savage lion-like creature that has been killing many members of the Tribe. The Tribe thinks that Stormfur is the silver cat from the prophecy, and he is therefore expected to protect the Tribe from Sharptooth. Although reluctant at first, Stormfur eventually agrees to help the Tribe.
Together, the Clan cats succeed in leading Sharptooth into a trap in a cave. However, their plan to poison Sharptooth goes awry, and Feathertail jumps up to the roof of the cave onto a stalactite
Stalactite
A stalactite , "to drip", and meaning "that which drips") is a type of speleothem that hangs from the ceiling of limestone caves. It is a type of dripstone...
, causing it to fall. Both Feathertail and Sharptooth are killed by the impact. The Tribe then realizes that Feathertail was the silver cat in their prophecy, not her brother Stormfur, as they had previously thought. The five remaining cats then continue their journey. The book ends with Squirrelpaw noticing Highstones, which is at the edge of WindClan territory; they are almost home.
Meanwhile, back in the forest, the Clans begin to experience the effects of the humans' intrusion into their territories, including lost and poisoned prey, destruction of the forest and cats being abducted.
Moonrise is followed by Dawn
Dawn (Warriors)
Dawn is a children's fantasy novel, the third book in the Warriors: The New Prophecy series. Dawn was written by Kate Cary under the pen name of Erin Hunter. It was published on December 27, 2005 by HarperCollins. The book follows the adventures of the four warrior cat Clans after five questing...
, which details the events following the questing cats' return to the forest, and their subsequent journey to find a new home.
Critical reception and sales
Moonrise received mostly positive reviews from critics. Sally Estes, writing for BooklistBooklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
, praised Moonrise for its "cliffhanger" ending "that will leave readers eager for the next installment", as well as the suspenseful possibility of the destruction of the forest. A reviwer for Horn Book Review gave a positive review, praising the plot, characters, and writing. The reviewer stated that "Hunter successfully weaves character, plot, and good writing into another readable story". Hilary Williamson, writing for BookLoons, gave Moonrise a positive review, calling it "exciting" and a "gripping epic". A reviewer for Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
criticized the novel for mundane writing, easy-to-confuse names, and the use of the words "meowed" and "mewed" instead of "said". The reviewer thought that the plot was "marred by the same preciousness of its predecessor", but praised the plot for its "enhanced complexity" and suspenseful writing, saying that "a small plot twist is refreshing and suspense builds steadily towards the final installment". The novel has also been mentioned for containing "magic, fantasy, and heroic adventure", and was recommended to fans of Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
as possible reading material after that series' end. Moonrise reached The New York Times bestseller list for children's chapter books, holding the number two spot for two weeks. It was also ranked 121st on USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
s bestseller list during the week of August 11, 2005. The work was also a success in Canada, reaching number seven on the Leader-Post children's bestseller list, and remaining in the top 15 for seven weeks. In a Fairfield, Greater Victoria store, Moonrise was reportedly more popular than Harry Potter.