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Mow - The Story of the Piratical Tom Cat Review by Renee Knoblauch

Mow - The Story of the Piratical Tom Cat, written by Roger Penney, is based off a real tom cat from the 1940s. Not all the stories are true and some of the stories are embellished for our enjoyment. All the stories have a realistic plot and something you could imagine a curious cat getting himself into.

Mow - The Story of the Piratical Tom Cat is available as a paperback book or as an eBook. This is a chapter book with 87 pages, not a very long story. It’s packed with several humorous adventures told from Mows point of view. The story is appropriate for upper elementary and middle school.

Mow was larger than your average tom cat and ruled his neighborhood in all aspects. Mow feels that humans are naïve and are around to serve his every need. Mow picked out a family that feeds him and lets him come in during the day to sleep. He shares the home with a Staffordshire bull terrier, named Stephanie. Stephanie looks up to Mow. Stephanie is baffled by Mow and doesn’t understand the ways of a cat. Despite, all the misunderstand of each other they are good friends who enjoy each other’s company, except Mow would never admit that out loud to Stephanie. Mow thinks he doesn’t need the people in his life, he feels that it’s the people who need him.

Mow goes on many adventures. On one of the adventures Mow hides so he doesn’t have the humiliation of being put into a cat show. Mow spends the night at the carnival eating like a king and too tired to go home. Mow slips into a tent for a cat nap. Not knowing it’s the very place he is trying to avoid. When he wakes up Mow find himself face to face with his only nemesis, Ginger a large house cat. The cats cause a big commotion in the tent. One of the many adventures Mow has.

Something to be aware of is that one of the stories has a scene in which the buglers’ are in a pub drinking ale and quite intoxicated. Another short story mentions the towns people thinking that a church is haunted but, in reality its Mow sneaking into the building in a window that he can open up.

The stories are fun. Mow - The Story of the Piratical Tom Cat is wonderful book for a feline lover to read. You could image a cat saying and doing many of the things that Mow does. I had to chuckle at many of Mows antics throughout the book.

My son loved the book and read it within a few days. I could hear him laughing out loud many times. My daughter is currently reading the book. She has some disabilities that make reading a task that she doesn’t always enjoy. She is enjoying the book and is determined to finish the book. That makes this mamma happy seeing my daughter enjoy reading a book.

This would be a fun read-out-loud for your family. Sometimes, we just need to add a no-nonsense book to our school just for fun and a few good laughs.

-Product review by Renee Knoblauch, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March, 2018