Dewey

by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

Dewey is the story of a tiny kitten who is abandoned in the library book return in Spencer, Iowa on a frigid January night.
 He is found the next morning by the author, and grows into a gorgeous cat who becomes the personality and soul of a small town library.

For any cat-lover, the tales of Dewey's antics are heartwarming and probably familiar. He is a charming, personable creature who captures the hearts of all of the humans who visit the library. The parts of the book about Dewey were just delightful and well written, and I loved reading about Dewey's life.

However, every chapter or so, there were several pages about the demise of small town Iowa, the collapse of the family farm, and the author's personal tribulations with divorce and childrearing. These sections included excrutiating detail about town history and statistics showing the futility of small farm operations these days, as well as personal vignettes justifying the author's divorce from her alcoholic husband. All of these "non-Dewey" story lines were related only marginally--if at all--to the main "Dewey" story line, and unfortunately I soon found myself very quickly skimming those sections just to get to the next piece of the story of Dewey. Tellingly, skimming (skipping, really) over pages at a time didn't leave any gaps in the Dewey story--the other material was plainly irrelevant.

My rating: if you love cat stories: Recommended with Reservations; if not, Not Recommended.