SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Fusenews
  • Reviews
  • Librarian Previews
  • Best Books
    • Top 100
    • Best Books of 2022
    • Best Books of 2021
    • Best Books of 2020
    • Best Books of 2019
    • Best Books of 2018
    • Best Books of 2017
    • Best Books of 2016
    • Best Books of 2015
    • Best Books of 2014
    • Best Books of 2013
  • Fuse 8 n’ Kate
  • Videos
  • Press Release Fun

April 20, 2022 by Betsy Bird

Next Level Middle Grade Fandom, or, What Erin Hunter’s Warriors Series Hath Wrought

April 20, 2022 by Betsy Bird   4 comments

I’m riding in the elevator with my boss the other day when he asks what kinds of things my kids are into these days. “Does your daughter like K-Pop or any of that?” he asked innocently. He had no idea.

What followed was a lengthy explanation on my part, practically involving charts and graphs, of my 10-year-old daughter’s current obsession. Not simply her obsession, mind you, but the obsession that has swept up her friends as well. A fascination that strikes me as so interesting that I brought it up constantly when I went to Bologna, then here back in the States, and every time I try to put it into words I find that I have a hard time explaining what, precisely it is. So, because this actually does have a direct link to children’s literature, I’m going to attempt to explain it to you here today.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Here goes.

No. My daughter is not into K-Pop. My daughter is into parody videos and music tracks about Erin Hunter’s Warriors series as created by adult women who were kids when the series first came out.

Before I get into the weeds of what exactly all this is, I’d like to state for the record that I have absolutely no idea if my daughter and her friends constitute some fascinating outlier when it comes to current child obsessions or if, in fact, this is pretty par for the course. My 7-year-old son is into the relatively less interesting but more normal machinations of a British YouTube Minecraft star named SB737, which generally strikes me as par for the course. But reinterpretations of The Warriors by Millennials? If nothing else, I feel like this is a marvelous example of what happens when fandom, book series that never die, and the beauty of online appreciation and creativity all come to a head. Though I’m talking about the Warriors series, I bet you could find similar cases with other series like The Animorphs, or Babysitter’s Club, or Goosebumps, where the grown or growing fans create their own separate world.

For the record, and this is true, my kid has read precisely ONE Warriors book. It was Into the Wild. She was not impressed. Therefore, despite the fact that she probably does not get a lot of the jokes about continuity errors in some of these videos, she enjoys them.

Now two people in particular represent what fandom is for a lot of kids these days. One goes by the name Blixmei who specializes primarily in music. I am well and truly familiar with Blixemi because I share a Spotify account with my daughter and now all my recommendations are Blixemi-related. From what I can tell, Blixmei was going strong until the pandemic hit. After that the content fell off a tad.

This is a pretty standard example of a Blixmei song:

The other person that has the most sway over my household is Moonkitti. Moonkitti is constantly producing content, so no worries there. Her takes are interesting since she enjoys highlighting the mistakes, continuity errors, and generally bizarre elements of your average Warriors book character.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

I won’t lie to you. I enjoy Moonkitti’s videos. They’d be a lot more enjoyable if I remembered reading the books at all (I did read the first one but didn’t retain much). They have basic animation for comedic purposes and . . . well, here’s what I mean:

This one was my favorite though:

Okay. Fine. I’m a mini fan myself. Normally I only really see these when I’m doing my daughter’s hair, but there’s something so appealing about them.

Now fandom used to be a simple case of reading a book or series, falling in love with it, and searching desperately for people who feel the same way. But what happens when the fandom itself becomes the enticing thing to bond over? Using these musical selections and these videos, my daughter and her friends have pieced together the plot elements of the books and now write their own fanfiction based on . . . the fan videos and music. This completely bypasses the original books themselves. Which, considering the fact that Erin Hunter isn’t a real person anyway, doesn’t make me quite as sad as it might.

No creator of a popular book series has any control over what their fans do or do not do with their properties. What’s interesting is when the series is just a starting point and things blossom in strange new ways. And if you’re lucky, those fandoms branch off into odder, more interesting interpretations.

So here’s to more kids reading books today and creating content based on those loves later. The child you hand a series title to now, may go anywhere with it. You really cannot predict where. Just don’t expect everyone to read the book.

Filed under: Uncategorized

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
BlixmeiErin HunterfandomMoonkittiThe Warriors

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

January 2023

The Top Ten Most Disappointing Edibles and Potables of Children's Literature

by Betsy Bird

January 2023

Announcing the 2023 Newbery/Caldecott/YMA Pre-Game Show!

by Betsy Bird

January 2023

2023 Arrived and a Blog Is Still Here: What Does the Future Hold?

by Betsy Bird

November 2022

A Lost Hero: The Rediscovery of Mildred Batchelder

by Betsy Bird

November 2022

The Yellow Áo Dài : A Talk with Hanh Bui and Minnie Phan

by Betsy Bird

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Surprise! Announcing CABOOSE

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Jump Into this Guest Post by Shadra Strickland About Her Latest Book: Jump In!

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Kiss Number 8 | Review

by Johanna

Heavy Medal

What’s Coming in 2023, A Feedback Poll, and Goodbye for Now…

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

WRITING FOR YOURSELF FIRST, a guest post by author M. K. Lobb

by Karen Jensen, MLS

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

A Book 25 Years in the Making: Marla Frazee Visits The Yarn

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

SLJ Reviews of the 2023 Youth Media Award Winners

Bank Street Announces 2020 Cook Prize and Irma Black Award Winner

Bank Street Announces Winner of Best Spanish Language Picture Book Award

Fantasy Award Contenders Layer Identity and Imagination | Pondering Printz

Hopeful Titles for Hard Times | Pondering Printz

About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Susan says

    April 20, 2022 at 7:34 am

    Haha love this hobby. Has she tried any of the full color graphic novels? My son is only interested in those (and is unaware of the YouTube creations).

    • Betsy Bird says

      April 20, 2022 at 9:13 am

      She says she hasn’t read any of the full-color mangas, though she did read a black and white manga at the end of one of the other books. Interesting since she does like comics. But nope!

Trackbacks

  1. This week’s round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (4/24/22) – Book Library says:
    April 24, 2022 at 10:54 am

    […] “Next Level Middle Grade Fandom, or, What Erin Hunter’s Warriors Series Hath Wrought” at Fuse #8 […]

  2. This week’s round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs (4/24/22) – Imobiliare 24 says:
    April 24, 2022 at 11:46 am

    […] „Next Level Middle Grade Fandom, or, What Erin Hunter’s Warriors Series Hath Wrought” at Fuse #8 […]

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

  • External Links

    • A Fuse #8 Production Reviews
  • Follow This Blog

    Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

    Primary Sidebar

    • News & Features
    • Reviews+
    • Technology
    • School Libraries
    • Public Libraries
    • Age Level
    • Ideas
    • Blogs
    • Classroom
    • Diversity
    • People
    • Job Zone

    Reviews+

    • Book Lists
    • Best Books
    • Media
    • Reference
    • Series Made Simple
    • Tech
    • Review for SLJ
    • Review Submissions

    SLJ Blog Network

    • 100 Scope Notes
    • A Fuse #8 Production
    • Good Comics for Kids
    • Heavy Medal
    • Neverending Search
    • Teen Librarian Toolbox
    • The Classroom Bookshelf
    • The Yarn

    Resources

    • 2022 Youth Media Awards
    • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
    • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
    • Summer Reading 2021
    • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
    • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
    • Summer Programming Survey
    • Research
    • White Papers / Case Studies
    • School Librarian of the Year
    • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
    • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

    Events & PD

    • In-Person Events
    • Online Courses
    • Virtual Events
    • Webcasts
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Media Inquiries
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Content Submissions
    • Data Privacy
    • Terms of Use
    • Terms of Sale
    • FAQs
    • Diversity Policy
    • Careers at MSI


    COPYRIGHT © 2023


    COPYRIGHT © 2023