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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I loved this book. What a heart warming story! I wish all of my books were like this.
I received “Dewey” as a birthday present from one of best friends. She thought I would enjoy it, because it combined two things that I love: books and cats.
This non-fiction story is about a kitten that was dropped in a library return box during a snow storm and subsequently adopted by the Spencer, Iowa library staff. The cat is named appropriately named Dewey and the story is his life at the library and how his presence affected the entire town.
The book wasn’t great. One early chapter in the book deals solely with Dewey’s love of eating rubber bands. I almost gave up reading it about a third of the way in. However, I did find the last half of the book to be endearing. In particular, the last part of the book deals with people in the town and the harder issues concerning older pets. Yes, it made me cry at the end. One other part of the story that was fairly amazing to me, was Dewey’s wide spread fame around the world. Each chapter has a picture of Dewey and he was one adorable cat!
This non-fiction story is about a kitten that was dropped in a library return box during a snow storm and subsequently adopted by the Spencer, Iowa library staff. The cat is named appropriately named Dewey and the story is his life at the library and how his presence affected the entire town.
The book wasn’t great. One early chapter in the book deals solely with Dewey’s love of eating rubber bands. I almost gave up reading it about a third of the way in. However, I did find the last half of the book to be endearing. In particular, the last part of the book deals with people in the town and the harder issues concerning older pets. Yes, it made me cry at the end. One other part of the story that was fairly amazing to me, was Dewey’s wide spread fame around the world. Each chapter has a picture of Dewey and he was one adorable cat!
Dewey Readsmore Books was the library cat at a small library in a small town in Iowa. They found him in the book drop one freezing night. His paw pads were frost-bitten. He lived in the library for over a decade and loved people.
The book is written by the library's long-time director and she does a good job of subtly reinforcing the importance of the library to the community, and how Dewey made the library a more interesting and friendly place for people to visit.
The book is written by the library's long-time director and she does a good job of subtly reinforcing the importance of the library to the community, and how Dewey made the library a more interesting and friendly place for people to visit.
Though heartwarming, this book has many faults. First off, it is not well written and at times seemed to lack transitions. Secondly. The cute factor feels a bit contrived and is used too much. Also, it is just too long. Ironically, I felt the same way about the picture book version. Finally, the story at times made me wonder whether the main human character was really all that good of a cat caretaker or a librarian. One may have been sacrificed for the other at times making it difficult for me to relate to the character. This was especially faulty as the other characters we near invisible.
It´s a sweet book! I loved Dewey, the book is perfect for catlovers! I liked the info about a small american town too, it was very interesting.
Vicki´s life is full of problems and the end of the book is very sad, I mean, VERY VERY sad, but it´s worth it! The pictures in the end is a special gift, too.
Vicki´s life is full of problems and the end of the book is very sad, I mean, VERY VERY sad, but it´s worth it! The pictures in the end is a special gift, too.
The 30% of the book that was cute cat stories was charming enough. However, those charms were greatly muffled by the 55% of the book that was self-indulgent librarian memoir--and the 15% of the book that was a smug referendum on the superiority of midwestern small-town values just annoyed me no end.
This was everything I hoped it would be and more, and now I can't stop crying.
I love cats, and I love libraries, so I feel like it was inevitable that I love this book, too. I wasn't expecting to learn so much about the history of Iowa while learning about Dewey, but I think that all of the anecdotes cohere well under a single cover. Of course, I sobbed through the last three chapters, because you have to get to the end of Dewey's life eventually. But this isn't a sad book, especially because the cat lived to be so old (nineteen years!) and didn't die in any specifically harrowing way. It's heartbreaking, because it's a loss, and you expect it to happen. But the majority of this book is a celebration of Dewey's life and his impact on the world, and that more than makes up for any tears shed along the way, in my opinion!
Obviously, this was a feel good story that brought many smiles to my face. But, I specifically wanted to address the autobiographical and social commentary that was being made in this book. Apparently some people didn't like it. I appreciated the autobiographical content because cats can become so ingrained in our lives over the course of many, many years. It was important to see how Dewey and this author's lives intertwined for 18 years to really grasp just what he meant to her in that time. Secondly, this book highlighted some really important social issues that were impacting small town America. It provides a learning experience, maybe builds some empathy, and definitely provides good conversations around those topics.