reviews

Four kinds of readers will snicker, snort, chuckle and chortle when they read "The Hat and the Cat." For those who have gone through the 12 weeks of Marine Corps boot camp, the book will take them back through the chaos of arrival, orchestrated pandemonium of the drill instructors (DIs -- the "Hats"), the destruction and rebuilding of the recruits' personalities, the slow realization by the surviving "boots" that they might just become Marines, and the cherished graduation day that would bring tears, except that Marines don't cry.

        The second type of readers are those who have not been fortunate enough to undergo the magic mixture that turns boots into Marines. The third type are middle-school and high-school students -- and for them, a perfect sequel would be an animated video production. And the fourth group are cats like Recruit Parker, the "accidental recruit" who slinked into a busload of incoming recruits and could never escape the loving wrath of his dedicated drill instructors. Cats? Yes, that cat, Parker, did it all, with the help of Velcro to keep his equipment on his back. And yes, he could read, write, and talk.

         Author June Andrade writes with the authority of a marine, partly because she once was a secretary to the commanding general at Parris Island, South Carolina, but also because she meticulously blends on-the-scene details into the cattale. Cattale is not the only feline word she intertwines into the book. Look for terms that occur when Recruit Parker begins to develop a new catitude, or a letter home where he says his tail would be dragging if he didn't have to keep it hidden. Andrade's jocose wit spills over onto humans when Jessie Lee, who eventually is revealed as Parker's "mother," reacts with horror upon learning that her Parker is destined for the Marine graduation exercise called "The Crucible." Jessie Lee, who is easily seen as the cat-loving author, is convinced that the Marines plan to "crucify" Parker. Finally, when the press learns that the Marines have turned a cat into a Marine, she tells the reader that "the cat is out of the bag!"
 Although suspension of disbelief is difficult at first, it soon becomes easy to believe that the drill instructors are truly turning the catnapped, catnapping recruit into a Marine. After all, the Marines can do anything - and so can cats.
Fred Edwards, LtCol, USMC Ret
Author of:
The Buffie Brigade
It's My Story and I'm Stuck With It!
The Bridges of Vietnam: From the Journals of a U. S. Marine Intelligence Officer