Intelligence Report--Jack the Cat That Went to War

"Jack the Cat That Went to War" (Fort Sumter's Cat) (Sesquicentennial Edition)

By Russell Horres (author) and Kate Sherrill (illustrator)
Early Elementary Readers
5 stars

Drummer Boy is looking forward to his vacation in Charleston, South Carolina next month. I like reading ahead when I visit a battlefield or historic site.  It helps me better appreciate where I am visiting.  It also helps ratchet up the anticipation for an upcoming visit. So, I went looking for a book to read to Drummer Boy that introduces Charleston’s Civil War history in a way that is entertaining for a 4 year old.  That is when I made the acquaintance of a “most unusual cat.”
 
Jack, the son of Miss Kitty and Mr. Tom, lives with the Rhett family in Charleston.  He witnesses the initial bombardment of Fort Sumter before Colonel Rhett decides to take this self-proclaimed Confederate cat to the fort itself to help the soldiers control the mice eating their food stores and the birds polluting their drinking water.  Readers learn about the layout of the fort, its Confederate occupation, bombardment by Union naval forces, and the lives of the Confederates inside the fort’s walls. 
 
Jack’s story is based on oral tradition and period illustrations that indicate that a garrison cat existed at Fort Sumter.  The book also contains actual documented historic events and figures who were important to the city and fort’s history.  It is an effective blending of fantasy and fact to create a memorable story.
 
One of the big challenges with all children’s Civil War books--especially picture books-- is presenting the information in a way that honors the history in an age appropriate way without sugarcoating it.  Many books like this struggle integrating slavery and the reality of the antebellum South in a way that doesn’t minimize the former and glorify the latter.  Russell Horres strikes the right balance as he spends all of one page describing Jack’s antebellum life, accompanied by Kate Sherrill’s beautiful misty depiction of hoop skirts, oak tree avenues and a columned Great House.  But he also introduces Mauma June, a slave who describes her abduction from her family in Africa, her sense of loss and the limits to her freedom.  In a particularly telling moment, she admits to Jack that she is envious of him—the family pet—because of his freedom.
 
The book is text heavy, but each page is accompanied by beautiful illustrations that bring Jack to life, help illustrate the charm of Charleston and highlight the insular world of life in such a small, isolated fort. 
 
The final pages provide an illustrated Glossary of Terms that helps both the children and any adults reading to them build their vocabulary.
 
This book was written in 2011 for the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the first shorts of the Civil War.   It is no longer in print, but new and used copies are available through Amazon's third party sellers and other used book vendors. 

Click on the book's title in this post to see the new and used offers on Amazon.