What books for a kid who is kinda over Warrior Cats?

November 17, 2024 6:42 PM

My niece, 12, loved Warrior Cats but is maybe a bit past them now. Are there other big fantasy series that she might like?

The online sites I have found suggest she shouldn't have even started reading Warrior Cats yet because they are more appropriate for teens but she has already read a ton of them and is kind of over them. What next? Is it too soon for something like Hunger Games or Divergent? She likes big series that she can really sink into for a long time.

posted by jacquilynne to Writing & Language (20 answers total)

One of the authors who wrote Warriors under a pseudonym wrote the Wing Of Fire books. Like, oops, All Dragons. It’s LIT. There are 14 books in both book and graphic novel form.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:48 PM on November 17 [3 favorites]

At that age, my daughter was really into the Maximum Ride series. She also read the first two Hunger Games book around then. (But lost interest and never read the third one. She would have been annoyed by it anyway, because she hated Peeta.) And, yeah, Wings of Fire. She was reading those around that time too. (But Maximum Ride seemed to be her favorite.)
posted by Redstart at 6:52 PM on November 17

Response by poster: I believe she has also read Wings of Fire, so that's definitely in the vein of things she likes. :)
posted by jacquilynne at 6:57 PM on November 17

I think 12 for hunger games is ok; maybe I’m permissive.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 6:58 PM on November 17 [1 favorite]

I believe I read Hunger Games at around that age, and I really liked it.
Artemis Fowl and Ranger's Apprentice are nice long series that I also liked.
posted by extramachine at 7:03 PM on November 17

I loved Tamora Pierce at that age.
posted by nevernines at 7:17 PM on November 17 [15 favorites]

I really enjoyed the Unwanteds series at that age, and kept reading them until I was around 15. It's a mix of dystopian and fantasy that has some really memorable characters, and I think the author is still writing a spinoff series.
posted by lianove3 at 7:21 PM on November 17

Seconding Tamora Pierce.

The kids I know who read Warrior Cats all were done with it by about 6th grade. I don't understand suggesting it for teenagers.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:22 PM on November 17 [4 favorites]

Tamora Pierce is a great suggestion. And I also think Hunger Games is ok at this age. But the last time you asked for suggestions I pointed out this is getting to be the traditional age for getting into VC Andrews, so who knows if you trust my opinion now.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:24 PM on November 17 [1 favorite]

My fantasy readers who like Wings of Fire and Warriors also tend to like the Keeper of the Lost Cities series and the Percy Jackson and associated series by Rick Riordan.
posted by wsquared at 7:24 PM on November 17 [2 favorites]

Perhaps Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books would appeal.
posted by SPrintF at 8:16 PM on November 17 [3 favorites]

Novik's Scholomance trilogy was a hit at that age.
posted by away for regrooving at 9:22 PM on November 17 [1 favorite]

Roderick Gordon's Tunnels series (6 books) about a 14 year old boy who starts exploring tunnels below the city with a friend after his father disapears. It's sinister and dangerous but very interesting. If it's too dark for her age, she may enjoy it in the next couple years.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 10:33 PM on November 17

There are 20-some books in Brian Jacques's Redwall series, bonus points for woodland animals having detailed feasts!
posted by abeja bicicleta at 4:44 AM on November 18 [2 favorites]

My daughter is just a bit younger and she loved the Warriors series too. Recently she has enjoyed The Lost Rainforest series by Eliot Schrefer (animal main characters like Warriors) and Patricia Wrede’s The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (dragons). My daughter also liked one of the spin off series of Warriors featuring African animals - Bravelands.
The Golden Compass might be a good fit too. Lots of animals companions, and armored bears. I read it at 12 and loved it. Oh, and two more animal themed books that are great for that age: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh and Watership Down.
posted by bitbotbit at 5:36 AM on November 18

The online sites I have found suggest she shouldn't have even started reading Warrior Cats yet because they are more appropriate for teens

I recommend ignoring any other advice you see on the sites that said this. If a 12 year old likes reading and is good at it, Warrior Cats are basically candy.
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:04 AM on November 18 [2 favorites]

Perhaps the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane? It has incidental cats with a side series offshoot for Feline Wizards. I would start off with Young Wizards thought and then move into Feline Wizards.
posted by ichimunki at 6:57 AM on November 18 [3 favorites]

I've never read Warrior Cats but I get the sense that it's a later generation's Animorphs. (The series is out of print, but legally dubious yet author-approved electronic versions are pretty readily available.)
posted by dick dale the vampire at 9:34 PM on November 18

Definitely Harry Potter!

The Wings of Fire books are definitely the next step for Warrior Cat fans. Erin Hunter and the ilk did a book series about a dog gang too, but they're not so popular iirc.

A very tentative rec for Watership Down... a lot of death but then Warrior Cats has its share!
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 10:49 AM on November 25

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I checked in with her father and he felt she was still more into young reader stuff than teen stuff and that she preferred graphic novels, so I bought her the first book in a bunch of series - Artemis Fowl, Maximum Ride, His Dark Materials, Protectors - that had graphic novel versions. There isn't a graphic novel of the Unwanteds but she is an arty kid with some particular anxieties that made me think it might resonate with her so I bought that, too.

Either she will like them or she won't. All Auntie can do when she doesn't get a Christmas list is try her best.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:29 PM on November 26 [1 favorite]