Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques

This book is part of the Redwall series, and I gave it a rating of four out of five. It shares the origin of the story of Martin, a legendary warrior mouse in Redwall. Martin is captured when he's very young and spends much of his time as a slave to Badrang, an evil stoat. Martin escapes with a few others, but he vows to return and free the rest. He also swears to kill Badrang and retrieve his father's sword. The rest of the book follows several plots. Martin has a difficult journey to reach Noonvale, the home of another mouse named Rose, where he hopes to enlist some help. Rose's brother meets a group of traveling performers who help him free additional slaves. Badrang has another problem in the form of his former partner, Clogg, who plans to take over the fortress and the slaves.

To be honest, I enjoyed the plots of this book, but there are a couple of things that might bother some readers. All of the characters are animals, but I'm okay with that. The main complaint I hear from some students is they can't understand the speech of the moles, shrews, and a couple of other characters. Some animals don't speak clearly, and the author writes the dialogue the way they sound. The rest of the characters should be easily understood, and I haven't had much trouble following the plot. The author is able to mix action and suspense with moments of humor. With regards to the series, I know there's a correct order, but I've skipped around to different books and haven't found that it's a problem. I read this book after Redwall, because Martin was mentioned in it.