Library cat magic makes reading program a success
SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS
It is time for one of our year-end traditions, Accelerated Reader reading posters — which have turned the library into a photography studio!
Every year Big Footsie picked books in the AR program to become “Footsie’s Favorites.” For each of these that a student reads and passes the quiz on, their name goes on a paper cat that goes on the wall and they get a prize from Footsie. By this time of year the wall is pretty impressive, with colored cats stretching all the way back into the stacks. Footsie always liked to get up on the shelf and check them out.
We talked a little this year about whether, without Footsie, we should continue to call the books Footsie’s Favorites, and we decided that we would keep the name. (more…)


Susan Loesch has been the librarian at the Arkansas School for the Blind for 35 years and is on the board of Feline Rescue and Rehome. She started the library cat program about 10 years ago after much animal therapy research.