SUSAN LOESCH

CATS IN THE STACKS

Sometimes it is good to sit back and just listen to what my students have to say. Markissha was one of my sixth graders this year, but she and I go back a long way, to when she was a little kindergartner. She is often quiet, but when she speaks she has a lot to say.

It is Markissha who designed the Accelerated Reader t-shirt last year, the one with the caption “Big Footsie says, ‘AR is Purrr-fect!’” And it was Markissha who reminded us all many times this year, when we had one of the new library cats here, “But, remember, we can’t ever replace Big Footsie.”

It is Markissha who is providing our Cats in the Stacks today. Her class created a Middle School Newspaper, and this was her article.

Arkansas School for the Blind Middle School
Newspaper of the Year

The Mixed Up Emotions in the A.S.B. Library
By: Markissha T.

Going to the library at school is always fun but it can be sad. We had three library cats that died. They will be remembered, but can never be replaced.

Those three library cats were named: Big Footsie, Alex and Snuggle Bunny. Big Footsie was the best out of all of them, because of his work with Accelerated Reader.

We have this reading program called, A.R. which stands for Accelerated Reader. It is where you read a book and if you pass it you get points. Within A.R. there is a program called Footsie’s favorites. If a book you pass is a Footsie’s favorite, you get a piece of gum and you also get pictures taken with a library cat.

Footsie became head library because he was Piper’s assistance. Piper didn’t like being a library cat, but Footsie did. He was a very nice cat. He liked baked chicken. He also liked to knock books down. Footsie liked to be petted. He loved to come to school. All Ms. Loesch had to do was say, “Big Footsie time for school,” and he would get in his carriage.

Snuggle Bunny had a very short life. She was very friendly. She had very soft whitish fur.

We thought Alex would be the head library cat for a long time because he had been Footsie’s assistant. He had thick yellow fur. He liked to play. I fed him treats one time. He liked those. It was a shock when he died.

Library cats are very important to our school because the library cats encourage kids to read. They also teach kids how to care for animals and they encourage kids to do well on other things as well as the reading. When we took that big ACTAAP test all the cats were asking of us was to try hard and do our very very best just like they do in A.R.

When we read A.R. books they aren’t always Footsie’s favorites but if they are not you still get credit and we also have A.R. rallies where we find out what everybody’s percentage is and they get prizes.

That’s my favorite of A.R and when we have A.R. rallies it brightens the cats’ days.
I love the cats and that is why I sometimes have mixed up emotions in the A.S.B. library.