I have always loved the Redwall series of books by Brian Jacques who uses animals for his tales and I bought every one the minute they came into the shops. 'Taggarund' is my favourite Why? It is different to the rest of the books and in my personal opinion a better read. The books are written primarily for young teen agers upwards and are always based on the good versus evil theme where good always wins out in the end but often at some cost. Shrews, weasels, rats, stoats and foxes tend to be always evil and the good creatures are mice, hedgehogs, moles, otters, badgers, hares and squirrels. Within the good versus evil as always, the author is never afraid to tackle some quite adult themes so there is hatred, violence, revenge, cowardice, murder and death but he counterbalances this with kindness, loyalty, trust, bravery love and even a touch of romance.

There are no great battles this time. Instead there are three different plots within the story. The book begins with the first and most important plot. An evil vermin clan of creatures is searching for a mystical warrior named the 'Taggerund' whom they believe will bring them to great glory by defeating their enemies. Because of prophecies, they discover the creature they believe to be the chosen Taggerund is not of them but an otter babe and they kill his father and steal the babe who is brought up by the wicked chief of the clan as his own son. A problem they have though is that genes will out and the babe grows into a tough and strong warrior who has a heart and cares for others so he refuses to kill though commanded to by the clan chief. This means he has to escape the clan and the rest of the story involves all his many adventures in his quest to find his way back to his Mother and sister in Redwall.

The second plot running through the story involves the cowardly creature Gruven, prompted by his ambitious Mother (who is determined that her son is the true Taggerund,) to set out with a few other members of the vermin clan to capture 'Tagg' and kill him.

The third plot moves over to Redwall Abbey where there is no leader at this time. The story lightens with the author's usual gift of poetry and many references to the 'good life' the Redwallers have. There is much fun with 'the dibbuns' (the little ones) always into mischief, but this is the third plot line where Tagg's Mother still grieves for her stolen son. His sister, through a huge puzzle involving the whole Redwall community which has to be solved, grows from an immature young girl into a potential Mother Abbess.

In the final part of the story The author doesn't have a huge battle as in other books in the series and he ties all the ends up peacefully with justice meted out to those who deserve it.

Redwall readers will be aware that the character Tagg is in contrast to another character in a previous book entitled 'Outcast of Redwall. In that one the Redwall creatures saved a baby ferret from dying and brought him up, but true to his nature he was a disaster, always lying, stealing, bullying hurting and in the end he ran away and returned to his vermin clan. In the case of Tagg he stayed true to his essentially good nature in spite of being brought up with the vermin clan. This book is the better of the two though. It is beautifully written and the character of Tagg in particular is really well drawn.

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of reading this book. It touched my heart many times and I recommend it to animal lovers young and old for some light reading and a lot of thoughtful themes about life for children to hopefully take on board.

This is one of my all-time favorite Redwall books. I dont know why, but for some reason I just keep reading it again..and again...and again...and again......
I love the Redwall books in general because of the colourful descriptions, songs, battles, feasts, journeys, and the way Brian Jacques balances the darkness and the light so skillfully. "Taggerung" employs all of these strengths into a real masterpiece of a novel.

I love that this installement actually acknowledges the basic prejudice that each "side" has to the other, but it still falls short of actually flipping the script on it. Still it's an incredibly enjoyable addition to the series and it even includes the very thing that captured my interest back in middle school, riddles.
The cast of characters is quite fantastic as well, I adore Cregga and Nimbalo. I do wish we had gotten to see more of how Dayna fit into everything before the overall wrap up of the novel, but regardless it was a fun read.

My fav.

This had definitely been my favorite Redwall book. Tagg is a great character and I found myself turning just a few more pages everytime just to see what happened next. I also enjoyed the Juska clans complex nature and loyalty. It was a nice contrast to the more disorganized vermin groups of other tales.

Not my favorite of the Redwalls, but not my least favorite either. I do love the ending. And Tagg is an excellent character.

I will say, though (and this is a bit of a spoiler): you really have to admire Abbess Song and Cregga. Song for having the nerve to decide "Y'know what? Since I had to go on an entire storming quest to become Abbess, the least my successor can do is solve a scavenger hunt." And then Cregga for successfully pulling the long con and pretending she had no idea what was going on the entire time Mhera was running about solving clues and such. Honestly. It's practically iconic.

Taggerung is one of my favorite Redwall books, and a favorite in general. That's probably due in a large part to Tagg/Deyna, because he fulfills so many of my Most Favoritest Character Types: the Hero, the Outsider, the Searcher . . . he's definitely a character I can admire, he's merciful to his enemies . . . and the idea of an otter raised by vermin, who's trying to find out who he really is - agh, I love it. He's the kind of MC you feel sorry for, but yet he's so strong. Tbh, he's probably one of my favorite Redwall heroes ever, and for a series packed full of heroes, that's saying a lot.

These books were a huge, HUGE part of my childhood, and I think I owe a lot to them as to the reason I love writing so much. Even as an adult I enjoy them immensely (Taggerung being a favorite, I’ve read it more times than I can count!) and I greatly admire Jacques’ ability to have so many characters in each book, but have you love (or hate, depending) all of them, and keep the story flowing so well when it is told from a narrative viewpoint with absolutely no inner thoughts from any individual characters (yet you get to know them so well!). He also manages to create intense and beautiful images with very little—a fantastic writer, not afraid to deal with serious themes in a children’s book. I feel like I grew up at Redwall and the surrounding area of Mossflower as much as I did reality

Ah, the classic starter high fantasy series. In my humble opinion, this is the best of the Redwall series. The plot feels way more intricate and complex than the usual Jacques plot, and surprises lurk around every turn. The characters are great (otters don't get nearly enough love in this series), and the questions asked in this book are compelling-- nature v. nurture; can evil truly corrupt good or is good innate? Just such an excellent book. Tagg 5ever

My all-time favourite Redwall novel. A beautiful story of a young otter growing up with the bad guys and finding his way home.

In this 14th Redwall adventure, a baby otter is stolen from Redwall Abbey by the evil clan of vermin Juskarath to raise as their fearsome warrior champion, called "Taggerung". Meanwhile, his loss is mourned at Redwall but life goes on with much feasting, drollery and a series of riddles that will ultimately lead to a new Abbess of Redwall. But despite learning to become a fearsome warrior like they want, Taggerung rebels against their expectations of savagery and strikes out on his own. He makes many friends in his adventures, and makes his way back to Redwall in time to protect his old family from his marauding foster family. Lots of dashing derring-do, nearly incomprehensible accents (especially by the moles), luscious food and humor. No need to read all previous Redwall books, this stands on its own.

4.5 stars

this book made me cry three times!! shoutout to tagg and nimbalo for doing their level best to be the gayest warrior/incorrigible little companion duo in the whole series, love them.