Midnight by Erin Hunter

This book is the first book in the Warriors:The New Prophecy series. The first six-book series was simply called Warriors, and I made the mistake of requesting the first book of this series instead, and not realizing it. But Hunter does a good job of filling the reader in on the history that takes place in the first series, so I'll just go back to that one when I'm done with this one.
The Warriors books are written for kids, they are cataloged with the junior fiction in the library. They are exactly what I would have read as an 11 or 12 year old, and they are written well, so they make a very enjoyable, easy read. The characters are cats, wild cats that live in a forest that surrounds what seems to be a rural (but slowly becoming suburban) area where humans live. The cats live in Tribes, and follow the Warrior Code. They are fiercely territorial, and brave, strong hunters and fighters.
The New Prophecy series follows Brambleclaw, who receives a vision from the cats warrior ancestors telling him that he and three other cats have been chosen (one from each tribe) to receive a message that will save all of the tribes from great danger. He manages to contact the other "chosen" cats, and convince them that they will need to travel farther than any cat they know has ever been in order to receive this message. There is inter-tribal rivalry that causes difficulties along their way, but the cats grow stronger in their determination to work together to save their tribes.
These books are easy to read, fun, suspenseful, and not at all dumbed down, in the way that some children's books can be. The cats are very much like real cats, but at the same time they are like people that you know. I am looking forward to continuing this series, and then reading the history of it in the first series.