Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
By Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

Fate dropped Dewey Readmore Books in a library’s return book slot, but it was up to Dewey himself to make the most of his situation. He was charmingly ordinary in many ways: like all us cats, he yearned for the highest perch in the room, loved sleeping in boxes (no matter how small), occasionally got into trouble and hated low-fat yogurt. But his passion for human companionship and the ability to know just which human needed him most made him perfectly suited for his job as library cat and head of PR. Some humans believe that for a book that’s about a cat, Dewey has an awful lot of non-cat parts. And since I am a cat, you might assume that I would feel even more strongly about this. But the truth is, Dewey’s story wouldn’t be anywhere near as impressive if this were merely a book full of cute cat anecdotes. To understand the impact he had on those around him — the library visitors, the town of Spencer, Iowa and the woman who was his caretaker and biographer — you have to learn their backgrounds. Dewey put Spencer on the map, and you need to know just how small and depressed Spencer was to begin with to realize how large this accomplishment was. The human-centric parts of this book are anything but gratuitous — they are an integral part of Dewey’s life history. This is a good, old-fashioned story that will engage both cats and humans alike. Dewey wound himself around people’s hearts, the way most cats wind themselves around their human’s legs, and this book will do the same for you.