Book Review: Captain Cat by Syd Hoff

So yesterday my son comes home all excited that he has one more day left in school. They cleaned out their desks and he brought home two books that he said were in his desk. One of them was this book. When I asked if he had read it yet he said no. So I remedied that and read it to him right away.

Captain Cat tells the tale of a cat who "joins" the army. He is given his name when some soldiers notice that he has more stripes than they do. He spends his day following the soldiers around but most are too busy to pay attention to him. All except for Pete. Pete always makes time for Captain Cat.

Ok so I totally was sitting there while I was reading it asking myself why these drawings remind me of something. It wasn't till today when I was looking up the book and author on Goodreads that I realized that Syd Hoff did some classic children's books that I remember from my youth such as Danny and the Dinosaur and Sammy the Seal. That gave me a smile as I had totally forgotten about those books.

I loved the charm of the books and the cuteness of a cat thinking it was joining the army. I also liked at the end when all the soldiers were dreaming of loved ones that Captain Cat was dreaming of Pete and vice versa.

So my son enjoyed this very much..wanna guess why? Yep, cause of cats. Put a cat in it and for him it an automatic 5 star.

I'm torn on this one because for me it felt a bit dated in that it depicted army life like a 1950s cartoon would. But it was still really cute and my son really enjoyed it.

I'll go with 5 out of 5 since my son didn't notice it was dated.

**This book was read with my special needs son who is severely learning disabled. The review reflects not only my opinion but his as well