Dewey

July 28, 2008
One frigid Midwestern winter night in 1988, a ginger kitten was shoved into the after-hours book-return slot at the public library in Spencer, Iowa. And in this tender story, Myron, the library director, tells of the impact the cat, named DeweyReadmore Books, had on the library and its patrons, and on Myron herself. Through her developing relationship with the feline, Myron recounts the economic and social history of Spencer as well as her own success story—despite an alcoholic husband, living on welfare, and health problems ranging from the difficult birth of her daughter, Jodi, to breast cancer. After her divorce, Myron graduated college (the first in her family) and stumbled into a library job. She quickly rose to become director, realizing early on that this “was a job I could love for the rest of my life.” Dewey, meanwhile, brings disabled children out of their shells, invites businessmen to pet him with one hand while holding the Wall Street Journal
with the other, eats rubber bands and becomes a media darling. The book is not only a tribute to a cat—anthropomorphized to a degree that can strain credulity (Dewey plays hide and seek with Myron, can read her thoughts, is mortified by his hair balls)—it's a love letter to libraries.

Dewey Readmore Books, the cat found in the book drop on a cold winter morning, put Spencer, Iowa, and its library on the map, with fans as far away as Japan. Suzanne Toren reads librarian Vicki Myron's account of the cat who was a part of the community for 19 years with a librarian's precise enunciation, yet she makes anecdotes about Dewey's love of chasing rubber bands or his one escape from the library touch the heart. Toren's voice remains upbeat while conveying the blend of love, bemusement, and occasional frustration that cat owners will identify with. Listeners--even those without cats of their own--will enjoy getting acquainted with a friendly, mischievous cat who "thought of himself--correctly--as one of a kind." J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine