Warriors Made Me Political

I was nine years old when I first dove into the world of Warriors by Erin Hunter. I was sitting alone and bookless on a bus full of strangers. It was going to be a long ride, and I hated being bored. I bravely asked my seatmate, a girl my age, if I could read over her shoulder. She said yes, so I jumped in, mid-book, mid-series. Even without any prior context, the bus ride passed in a flash.

The next school day, I rushed to the library. The Warriors section was huge. I was only allowed to check out two books at a time, so I brought home the first two books of the first series in the franchise, “Into the Wild” and “Fire and Ice.”

Warriors: The Prophecies Begin includes six books that follow Firestar, a courageous cat with a flame-colored coat who proves he can be a warrior despite his house cat origins. With its own cat slang—kittypet (housecat), rogue (stray cat)—I felt like I was in the book traversing into the unknown right beside him. 

 My parents had no idea what I was reading. If they did, they probably would have taken the books right out of my hands. I witnessed cats grapple with political diplomacy, ethical dilemmas, and mental health disorders. Late nights were filled with forbidden love across clans (interracial marriage?), child soldiers, and existential religious crises. I never looked at my pets the same. 

As I progressed through school, I felt prepared to take on new subjects. I traced back concepts of environmental degradation to the clan cat’s forced migration. The books bridged gaps in my suburban schooling. I was exposed to starvation and sickness, torture and grief. I cried a lot, but I developed empathy for the real world. The books were dark, but they taught me perseverance and morality. Anti-bullying bystander training had nothing on the Thunderclan cats’ bravery and courage. 

I later figured out that reading the Warriors books did not make you cool. My best friend would jokingly call me “Warrior Kitten” in the school hallways. It was weird to read about talking animals when everyone else was bingeing Marvel movies. However, reading Warriors inspired my love for the study of the social sciences. Because I read Warriors at such a young age, much of what I learned about I had already been exposed to through a world of cats, where the stakes were low. Warriors prepared me for real life. 

The Warriors books are impactful tools of political and human rights education for young children. Teachers should stock them in the classroom, and parents should read them aloud to their children at night. I owe my adult love for politics and history to the Warriors books. They gave me a deep and honest crash course on the real world, while softening the blow because everything is happening amongst talking cats.

Lily Ahluwalia can be reached at lahluwalia@wesleyan.edu.