Hello Young Readers, I’d like to help you get ready for this story before you read it. So, ask yourself the first seven questions after you look at the cover of the book.
Q. Think of a pet you know. What is something you like about that pet?
Q. Think of the same pet. What is something you don’t like about that pet?
Q. Perfect is usually spelled p-e-r-f-e-c-t. Why do you think it is spelled purr-fect in this story?
Q. I see two boys and one cat on the front cover. What is one boy offering the cat?
Q. What is the cat doing?
Q. Do cats usually beg for food?
Q. Using the title and cover illustration, what do you think will happen in this story?
Piglet:
How do you spell love?
Pooh:
You don’t spell it.— A.A. Milne
You feel it.
Now, read the story and as you go along predict or think of what might happen next. When you’re finished see if you can answer these remaining questions. You may have to look in the book for some answers and that is just fine.
Q. The boy, Jake, uses the word anomaly to describe his pet, Georgie. Anomaly means something different from what we expect. Think of some things that make Georgie an anomaly.
Q. Jake talks about fur getting in the cat’s belly. How did that happen?
Q. Jake explains about an animal chip. What is an animal chip? If you don’t know you can ask a parent to help you find out what it is by searching the internet.
Q. What does Jake mean when he says, “Sad is not a big enough word to tell you how I feel.”?
Q. How did Grandma feel about Georgie at the beginning of the story?
Q. How did she feel about Georgie at the end of the story?
Q. Grandma went through a transformation. A transformation happens when a character’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior change by the end of the story. What caused the transformation in Grandma?
Q. What does the word expectations mean? You can look this up or ask Alexa. What did Grandma expect from Georgie at the beginning of the story? How did she learn to stop being disappointed in and angry at Georgie?
Q. What is the lesson of this story?
Q. Bonus question: Why did the author write a story with a dad, two boys, and two grandparents all living together without a mom? How does this arrangement fit in with the book’s title?
At the age of one year Georgie, the cat, was left by his first owners on the streets of a small city in New Jersey. He wandered around and was taken in by a kind resident. She in turn gave him to a family who agreed to give him a home. When Georgie decided he was the boss of the other cats in that home he went to Angela’s house where he has been residing in glory ever since. He loves people, ham, chasing the deer in the nearby woods from inside his house, and eating flowers, fresh or silk. But, hey, nobody’s purr-fect, love him anyway!