Story Time Monday ( a bit late!)

The very fact that I could read "Dewey; There's a Cat in the Library" eight times on Monday and still like the book at the end of the day is a real testament to its charm. Dewey was a stray kitten found on the steps of the Spencer Public Library in Iowa and taken in by its librarian, Vicki Myron. As the library's cat he had a lengthy job description which started with "Reducing stress for all humans who pay attention to him" and included "Generating free national and world-wide publicity for Spencer Public Library." This publicity resulted in a book, "Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World." It was so popular that a children's version was created. In this version of the story, Dewey at first isn't so sure that he likes being pulled and poked and petted (the wrong way!) by the children who come to the library and tells how he came to realize that he isn't just a "cat in a library" but a "Library Cat" and that part of his job is to "help people." The story is greatly aided by the large and realistic illustrations by Bret Witter which practically leap off the page, especially when viewed on a large screen via the document camera. Some of the pictures made the children laugh out loud and everyone was quite taken by Dewey's ability to make kids in the library --and us-- smile.