Mossflower by Brian Jacques

I was browsing through Borders one day in search of Clive Barker's Abarat(Which I found, by the way and will soon read)-- I found a collection of books by Brian Jacques. The cute covers and brief blurbs on the inside first pages intrigued me, and being a fan of Wind in the Willows made me all the more eager to check it out. I'd never heard of the Redwall series before, but I'm glad I took the time to check it out.
I've seen Amazon reviews by some parents declaring it's entirely too graphic. Having read the book, I can only conclude that they have the completely wrong age group in mind. Either that, or they want their kids living in a bubble.
The only things that could be considered graphic would be animals getting hit with arrows and the mention of bleeding. No worse than when kids used to play Cowboys and Indians.
In terms of reading level for kids, this is about at the same speed as Harry Potter.

It's got that animal charm of Wind in the Willows, but with more action and adventure. It's a medival/Robin Hood-esque environment/time period. It's a story of perseverence. The creatures of Mossflower are being ruthlessly opressed by Queen Tsarmina the Wildcat and her grand empire, Kotir.
The woodlanders(Mossflower residents) decide that something must be done, and Martin the Warrior is just the mouse to lead the rebellion. It becomes a sort of David and Goliath type thing. We've got the queen wildcat and her army of weasles, stoats, ferrets and pine martins. A viscious bunch to be sure. And you've got mice, moles, and squirrels giving them the fight of their lives. Yes, there's a badger and many otters also involved, but it's Martin the wee mouse that takes on the big ol' nasty Queen cat in the end. Which is something of an encouragement to children- Size matters not, to quote Yoda.
As an adult reading this- If you're like me and keep in touch with your inner child, Mossflower will be a fun read. Themes and such things aside, it's something you can read just for the fun of it. When I fist started reading it, bits of it seemed a little hokey to me, but once I got the proper mind-set(reminding myself that this is intended to be accessible to kids), it turned into a really fun read.