Ummm... my DD was completely obsessed by those darned books from the time she was six until...
well, it peaked at 7-9yo.
She *would* read other stuff, but I'm guessing that she has re-read each and every one of those Warriors books (well, the extant ones at the time, anyway) at least seven to ten times.
I felt exactly the same way that you do about them, fwiw. Oddly, somehow, it bothered me less when she turned that "collector" mentality toward Nancy Drew... which is just as formulaic and production oriented.
Yes, this too shall pass. She has had no real interest in them for about two years at this point. It was a very long five years, though.
DD's draw from the books was that it was: a) about CATS (she loves cats), b) high fantasy but realistic, c) female-oriented but without being girly/princessy or "sporty" d) immersive, like an RPG world, and e) action-driven but with a LOT of social complexity to accompany that action.
In short, it was like James Bond but for 7-12yo girls.
Our answer to this was to provide a LOT of afterschooling in literature selections. At least that way this wasn't all she was reading, even if it was a huge component of her self-selected literature at the time.
It doesn't seem to have harmed her any, if that helps. LOL.
