I found this sweet story a bit overly sentimental at times. It was still an enjoyable read about the love of one woman for her city and about the change in that city when the library adopts a kitten. ( )

This book tells the touching story of Dewey Readmore Books, the cat who lived at the library in Spencer, Iowa. Dewey was just a kitten when the library staff found him in the book return on a bitterly cold morning in January 1988. They took care of him, and kept him at the library, where he quickly became popular with the library patrons. Unlike most cats, Dewey was very gregarious and interacted with the patrons in a sensitive manner, seeming to know what each one needed.

After winning a local pet photo contest, Dewey started appearing in regional articles and tv news stories, then national magazine and newspaper articles, and eventually even international stories. In 2003, a film crew came from Japan to film him for a documentary. People came from all over to visit the library and meet Dewey.

Along the way we learn about the life of Vicki Myron, director of the Spencer Public Library, and Dewey's effect on her, her family, and on the surrounding community. The book also includes brief descriptions of the history of Spencer and life in northwestern Iowa, which I didn't really expect and which I found interesting. It shows us what life is like in a small town and how much it has changed over time. Overall, the book is really about love and community.

I enjoyed this book very much. It was an easy read. Anyone who loves cats and/or libraries should find it irresistible. ( )

This was a book about a small town in the mid-West.
This was a book about a woman and her family.
This was a book about a cat, who impacted the small town and the woman.

I really liked this book. It was an easy read, and Myron mixed Dewey stories with stories from her own history, and that of Spencer, Iowa. It wasn't a lifechanging book. It wasn't a book about extraordinary events. It was a book about an ordinary cat who lived an ordinary life in an ordinary town, but managed to touch the world in an extraordinary way. ( )

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.

this would get a lot less stars if it weren't about a cat, an adorable, fluffy orange cat. i'm sorry, i'm a sucker. i'm not so sure he touched the world, but he was fucking adorable. the writing is not so gripping, but when i got to the inevitable "end," i bawled my eyes out. jesus. cute cat. ( )