Dewey

I must have been the only person in North America that hadn't heard about this cat before. I'm serious, even my husband knew about Dewey. Ah well...I'm a cat lover and I couldn't resist reading the book.

Here's the blurb:

How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.

Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility, (for a cat) and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.

As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

In all honesty I was expecting something different. I was expecting a book on a cat and his antics. But instead I got book about a small town in Iowa. If I had known that at the beginning, I probably wouldn't have picked this book.

I enjoyed reading about Dewey, but I could have done without all the town problems and personal issues that went about. I do understand that Dewey brought happiness in those bleak times, but I felt that it was more a story about the town, and the author. There were chapters that I wondered where was Dewey...ah.

Bottom line I found the book boring.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter (2.5/5) Non-fiction; Memoir; Published: Grand Central Publishing (8/2008); 2009 100 + Reading Challenge (51); 2009 Support Your Local Library (46);