The Best of Both Worlds

My sister and I were at our local Barnes and Noble a week ago in search of something new to read (as if we didn’t have a dozen books at home to read!). I was searching the craft section for any new cross-stitch books. To be honest, I always have more luck in the cross-stitch magazine section for something new than the craft book section. The bookstores in town rarely get anything of note in the realm of cross-stitch. If, by chance, they get a new book in stock, it is usually a beginner’s technique book. Of course, that is not a bad thing per se, but I would love a bookstore that had just as many cross-stitch books as say knitting or croquet books!

After wandering away from the sad state of affairs that is the cross-stitch/embroidery shelf of the craft section, my sister comes flying around one of the shelves in search of me. “You must read this!” I glance down to see what book she’s holding and I see an adorable orange kitten staring up at me. I didn’t grab the book from her hands until she said, “He’s a library cat.” LOL I was sold from the moment on; you can pass up cats and libraries in the same sentence, can you?

I read Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World in the space of two days. It is a heartwarming story of a kitten that had been shoved into a return book bin at the public library in Spencer, Iowa and consequently rescued and raised by the library staff. The librarians named the little orange ball of fluff, Dewey Readmore Books. The book tells the story of how the cat won the hearts of the library’s patrons and in the end, the whole town of Spencer.

If you love cats and libraries as much as I do, you’ll pick up a copy of Dewey at your local bookstore or you might even try to see if your local library has a copy yet!