Whittington

A barn full of personality, magic and the humans that love this community of wise caring animals. Young Ben learns unconventional how to challenge himself learning to read.

My daughter is 11 and is an avid reader. This is one of her new favorite books. We have the audio book version as well and she listens to it over and over.

I enjoyed this story. I grew up with the pleasure of a family life of barnyard friends and I later learned to appreciate history. This story is the marriage of these two passions. I felt transplanted to a simplier time and found escape and pleasure in the book myself. I am not sure the age group marketed will get it but I did.

If you like to read realistic fiction books WHITTINGTON is the book for you. This book talks about a cat named Whittington who doesn't have a home because his owner had to get rid of him to be able to go to a special program. Then one day he sees a duck walking in his direction. He asks her if she had a home. She told him that she lived in a barn with other animals. He asks her if he could go and live with them. When the duck, Lady, brings him to meet the barn animals they agree to let him stay. In the barn, Whittington helps them with a lot of adventures and helps a boy with reading and writing. Will the boy, Ben, ever learn how to read & write? What happens when a hawk tries to eat Lady? What will Whittington do? In this book, Armstrong describes the characters really well that you can visualize it. Whittington is described by his specialty of catching rats and helping the barn animals. Lady is described to be the boss of the barn and cares about other animals and people. The boy Ben is described as a quiet kid but that has trouble with his reading. He gets very frustrated when he can't read something and loses his patience. Where the story took place was in a barn. The type of genre this is realistic fiction. This book will keep you hooked until the end readers!

This Newbery honor book is the story of families of origin and families of creation. It is also a tale depicting the power of love and of story. Framed within the present in which Ben and Abby, brother and sister, spend time in their grandfather's barn listening to a tale told by the barn cat, Whittington, who is a descendant of the fabled Dick Whittington's cat. The novel "Whittington" moves between a re-telling of the medieval Whittington tale to two present day tales in which Ben is struggling to read and the animals are struggling for primacy in the barn. "Whittington" offers adventures and excitement in the tales of Dick's travel as a peddler, as well as in the battle of the animals in the barn. The story also offers emotional insights and pathos in the tale of Ben working through his problem with dyslexia and the recovery of Lady, the duck who is head of the animals in the barn, after an attack. This would be an enjoyable family or classroom read-aloud for 4th and 5th graders, as well as a rewarding book for kids who like animal tales and/or fables.

This is a marvelous retelling of a classic children's story, as told to a group of farm animals and children by--of course--a cat. Dick Whittington was a real person and while the story somewhat enhances the truth, it is still worth reading.