Mattimeo (book)





Winner:


 * Western Australian Young Readers' Award

Nominated:


 * Carnegie Medal

Summary
Matthias and Cornflower have had a son named Mattimeo, who has been generally spoiled throughout his life. Meanwhile, the masked fox Slagar the Cruel and his gang of slavers are planning to enter Redwall Abbey during one of their feasts. He does so, and after drugging the Abbey residents, he kidnaps Mattimeo, Tim and Tess Churchmouse, Cynthia Bankvole, and Sam Squirrel. Upon dicovering the children missing, Matthias, Basil Stag Hare and Jess Squirrel leave the Abbey to hunt down Slagar and return the children back home.

On their journey, they meet up with Orlando the Axe (a badger) and Jabez Stump (a hedgehog), who have both had children snatched by Slagar. As they journey, they find the Guerilla Union of Shrews in Mossflower, and convince them to aide the travellers on their quest.

Meanwhile, at the Abbey, an army of rooks, led by the raven General Ironbeak, have declared seige to the Abbey, conquering it from the top down. The Abbey dwellers have sealed themselves in the large dining room (called Cavern Hole), and are harrasing the birds by making them think the Abbey is haunted. As the siege went on, a large, badly injured redkite named Stryk managed to fly to the Abbey, and was rescued from the rooks by Constance. Eventually, Ironbeak did mangage to infiltrate Cavern Hole, but was attacked by the now healed Stryke and was killed.

After a long journey up cliffs, fighting a horde of archer rats, and crossing a desert, Matthias's gang finally arive at the underground kingdom of Malkariss, where Slagar has been trading his slaves. There, the heroes fight the massive army of rats, while Matthias frees the slaves held there and is reunited with his son. Having destroyed the kingdom, the now free army of slaves starts to leave the area when suddenly Slagar appears. He runs from them falls down a hole, and dies.

The party returns back to the Abbey and there is peace once again in Mossflower.

Characters in Mattimeo