january book review

This month, I've shamefully only completely read one book: "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World."



For those that haven't heard of it, "Dewey" is a true story written by the Spencer, Iowa librarian who found a kitten inside the library's drop box on the morning after the coldest day that winter. They decided to let the kitten live in the library and Dewey eventually became one lovable, popular feline.

I think because of all the hype I had heard about it and the fact that the movie deal is reportedly in the works, I expected to be more blown away then I was. Don't get me wrong, it was a great little story, and I will admit, I did have quite a few tears toward the end, but I wasn't all that drawn in by the writing style. There's nothing fancy with the writing which was possibly the idea in order to keep it accessible to a large number of people.

Author Vicki Myron does do a great job filling almost 300 pages with cute anecdotes and touching descriptions such as the following:

"Dewey wasn't special because he did something extraordinary but because he was extraordinary. He was like one of those seemingly ordinary people who, once you get to know them, stand out from the crowd."

But I can't help to think that I would have liked "Dewey" better had it not been for the misspelling of Schuyler, Nebraska (it's referred to as Skylar in the book). Having been an editor in college, it's a small thing like this that no matter how many cute anecdotes fill up the pages, I'll always think, "But they spelled the name of a town wrong!"

Despite that, I would recommend this book to the following three groups: people that really like cats, people that really like libraries, or people that are one or two generation older than I and are looking for something to read.