Mattimeo Essay, Research Paper

Setting: The story takes place in Mossflower,

a forested area where the animals of Redwall live. It takes place in fantasy

times. There are no humans, just animals roam the earth.

The Main Characters: The main characters

are Mattimeo who is the son of the great warrior mouse of Redwall, Matthias.

Matthais is the great warrior of Redwall whose son has been taken captive

by Slagar the Cruel. Jess squirrel is a normal Redwall inhabitant whose

son has also been taken by Slagar. Orlando the Ax is a huge badger and

his daughter Jube has been captured by Slagar. The last main character,

Basil Stag Hair, is a veteran foot fighter rabbit who has an enormous appetite.

Summary: This is a story of a boy becoming

a man. It is told through animals and fantasy. It starts with the animals

of Redwall having a peaceful celebration of the new season. Slagar and

his evil henchmen came to the celebration disguised as entertainers. They

spiked the animals’ drinks with a sleeping potion and kidnapped all of

the children of Redwall, including Mattimeo, son of the great warrior mouse

Matthias. When they awaken they send out a search party to find the children.

Matthias, Jess, and Basil discover the trail of the missing children. On

their way they met Orlando the Ax who was also looking for his daughter,

Jube. They found out that Slagar was kidnapping children and taking them

as slaves in a slave train to an unknown realm. They finally caught up

to Slagar and were going to rescue their children but were fooled into

going into a cave. Slagar then dumped huge rocks over the entrance to the

cave. It took the animals days to get out of the cave. Slagar took the

slaves to an underground kingdom where they would work for an evil ruler.

The slaves were then put in a cell without anything to eat or drink. Matthias

and his companions thought they had lost their children forever because

they couldn¹t find an entrance to the underground kingdom. Finally,

while sitting on a rock, the rock slid away to reveal a staircase into

the ground. They went down the staircase and then were attacked by rats.

By mistake they found the children who joined with Matthias in fighting

the rats. At the end they defeated the rats and the evil emperor. They

went home and Mattimeo had finally after experiencing these events become

a man. He took over his fathers place as the warrior of Redwall.

Impression: I really liked this book because

of all its suspense. The author kept my attention constantly. For example,

in the book the author would cut off right at a very suspenseful part and

switch to another part. From a scale of one to ten I would give this book

a ten. I recommend it to whoever likes fast moving stories and suspense.