Book Review: Dewey

Do you believe in animal angels? No? To be honest, I am not certain that I do either. But after reading this book, I have started to re-think the question.

Dewey Readmore Books was a real cat in a real library in a small town in Iowa. His story is told in DEWEY: THE SMALL-TOWN LIBRARY CAT WHO TOUCHED THE WORLD, written by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter.

Somehow, on a cold night, Dewey found his way into the outdoor book drop of the library in Spencer, Iowa. The next morning he was found by the author, Vicki, who was the chief librarian. The library board and staff adopted him, later the entire town adopted him, and he actually gained a fair amount of worldwide fame.

Dewey took his job as library cat seriously. He gave his attention to the staff members and the library patrons. He had a remarkable ability to identify people who needed his attention – people who were depressed, who needed a laugh, who had some special need. He had an unerring instinct for doing whatever the situation called for to comfort a sore heart, to bring someone out of his social shell, to give a laugh.

The book is about more than Dewey, however. It is about life itself. Life in rural America during the 1980s and 1990s, the ups and downs of farmers and the communities they depend on. It is about Vicki herself and the family and health issues she had to confront. It is about people who struggle and survive, clinging to hope and faith.

But back to the animal angel issue. All of us who have pets know that our animal friends are sensitive to our moods and work to amuse or comfort us when we need them to. But Dewey, card-carrying member of a notoriously free-thinking and independent species of animal (the cat family), seemed to carry this sense to the level of art. I have known many cats but I have never seen one with the instinct that Dewey had. And that does make me wonder if he was an animal angel. That cat certainly had a gift for easing others’ hearts.

There are amusing sidebars in the book to break up the narrative, providing such information as Dewey’s daily routine and his rules on running the library.

I had a little trouble getting into the book at first; the writing seemed stiff. After a while, I didn’t notice it any more.

If you enjoy reading about animals in general or cats in particular, or life in small towns, you should enjoy this book.