General Jack and the Battle of the Five Kingdoms by David Bush is a fiction story about the five kingdoms of animals: Feline, Canine, Dairy, Equine, and Big Mammal. The lions, rulers of the Feline Kingdom, are cruel overlords of all the other animals. Miaow is chief of the cats, the lowest of the Felines. Although he laments the unjust and savage way of things, he accepts it and does nothing to change it. But after he is wounded by a panther, he is saved by a boy named Jack, who nurses Miaow back to health and encourages him to take action. The four other animal kingdoms join together and work with the cats in secret to overthrow the Feline rulers. What will happen if King Roar learns of this betrayal?

I enjoyed reading David Bush’s riveting novel that follows an ordinary character that does something that he’d believed was impossible. The plot of the story was intriguing and unique, and I liked that the cats became some of the heroes of the story. Scratchy was my favorite character in the story. I liked the pictures of the animals and landscape, especially the black and grey silhouettes of trees and mountains, that were included throughout the story. Most of the pictures were black and white, except for a few that showed black silhouettes against a bright orange sky. There were lots of interesting facts about history, geography, and wildlife in the notes at the end of the book.

I enjoyed the thrilling conflict at the heart of this story, but I didn’t like how Miaow behaved in the beginning of the book, standing by and allowing injustices and atrocities to happen to others. Miaow’s son Scratchy was the only one willing to risk his own life and safety to intervene. Miaow turned a blind eye to the suffering of others out of fear of the consequences to himself. With Jack’s prodding, Miaow finally started organizing the covert warfare against the Feline Overlords. In this part of the book, there was a lot of focus on the battle tactics of the Union Jacks. The descriptions of the successful missions against the lions, tigers, cougars, panthers, and jaguars were very descriptive, if a bit repetitive, but still aided in creating some enthralling battle scenes.

David Bush has created a unique story that blends The Jungle Book with The Lord of the Rings to create an enchanting adventure. General Jack and the Battle of the Five Kingdoms is a spellbinding story that will appeal to fans of epic fantasy.

Pages: 163 | ISBN: 979-8667226413