It is easy to see why Henty's books were once so popular. This book was replete with exciting adventure. Many characters were noble and good, some were still fairly noble, but rather wicked, and others were trivial. Henty included a great deal of historical detail in all his books. In this book, the protagonist and his friends take trips and go hunting mostly so that Henty can describe the daily lives of ancient Egyptians. Henty was a Christian author; I quite enjoyed the protagonist's meeting with a troubled Moses, still an Egyptian nobleman, but fallen out of favor due to politics. Bring me more of this wholesome, yet lively, young adult fare! ( )

This book is billed as a "children's classic", but I think children would be hard-pressed to read it, and today's teens, if they were able to read it, probably would not like it. This is an old-fashioned novel about Egypt; written in the 19th century. It is a product of its time, and a good one. There is a lot of information to process about battle procedures and tactics, as well as foreign names. It is the story of of Amuba, Prince of the Rebu, who is captured in war by the Egyptians and made the slave of the high priest of Osiris. The priest is a kind man, and Amuba becomes a companion to the priest's son. The priest's son accidentally kills a sacred cat which is punishable by death. Amuba, the priest's son, and his sister must flee. Moses and the Israelites even make an appearance! 339 pages ( )

Pretty good book that lets you discover quite a bit about Ancient Egypt, if you can pull the fact from the fiction, and a generally nice story. The language makes reading this book a little tiring, but it was written quite a while ago so that's understandable. My only complaint is that I wish there was more character development, especially towards the end, where a romance that's never discussed is just suddenly presented to you. ( )

Review: The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty. This is a wonderful “Children’s Classic” written over a hundred years ago. There is no copyright date but the author was born in 1832 and died in 1902. I thought it was well written and I loved the characters. I really didn’t know at first that it was a children’s book until I read about the author. The story is written for any age with adventure, coming of age, culture, and people of various races as far back as Moses. The setting is in Egypt and described with as much authenticity to keep the reader captivated. Each chapter gives a great amount of details and interesting facts about Egypt woven into an exciting and suspenseful story that any reader would enjoy. The story is about a teen-age Rebu Prince, Amuba who lost his Kingdom, his father, his family, and his home to the Egyptians in a battle to take over the kingdom. They took many of the Redu people back to Egypt to use as slaves. However, the Prince and one of his father’s best companions, Jethro both ended up being chosen by the High Priest of the Temple of the Gods as a companion for his teen-age son Chebron, and a protector for his daughter. One day Chebron and Amuba took their bows and arrows out to the area where the hens, geese, ducks and other animals were migrating and hid in the bushes to find out what has been scaring and killing some of the flock. They heard a loud screech and noticed a large black raven swooping down in attempt to catch his prey. Both boys stood at a stance with their weapons ready and shot their arrows toward the bird. Amuba’s arrow found its mark and the bird dropped to the ground. Amuba was elated that he hit his mark until he looked over and saw Chebron in a state of panic pointing to the shed that housed some of his sister’s pets. Stuttering and crying Chebron managed to explain to Amuba that his arrow veered off a branch and struck his sister’s favorite and sacred cat. In Egypt a few animals are considered Gods of worship and this cat was highly sacred and was chosen as the one special blessed cat of Egypt. If it was known that he killed the cat he would be denounced and most likely be killed. Once this happens the decision was made by his father for Amuba, Jethro and Chebron to go away as far as they could. Before they even got out of the city the news had spread….The story moves on with plenty of adventure and chaos…. One moral concept I got from the story was that no matter what religion, race, sex or god many people gave a helping hand and were considerate of each other to the very end….but most stories has a villain…. ( )

I read this book when I was really young and I loved it. The sacred cat of Bubastes has accidentally been slain; now young Chebron must pay for the offense with his own life, as this is the law of the Pagans in Egypt, 1250 BC. Chebron, the son of a high Egyptian priest, flees for his life, taking his sister Mysa, one of the household slaves Amuba, and several companions with him. They escape through closely guarded Egyptian exits only to find themselves in unfamiliar and dangerous lands inhabited by a very different culture of people. Along the way, the roving band of refugees encounters and befriends a Hebrew girl, who exposes them to very strange ideas, including the worship of "one true God." ( )