The barnyard doesn’t quite know what to think of the straggly tomcat who wants to move in. He’s missing half an ear, and he bears plenty of other scars, too. But after discussions with Lady the duck (and the barnyard’s leader), the animals admit Whittington into their family. They need someone to keep the hated rats, who steal food and eggs, in check, after all.
But maybe Whittington can help in another way, too.
The barnyard is owned by an elderly couple named Bernie and Marion. Bernie cares for the animals with the help of his two grandkids, Abby and Ben. But those kids need their own sort of help. Their mom died, and their dad is nowhere to be found, and they struggle with both anger issues and school.
Marion volunteered as a teacher’s aide in Abby’s class to help her get back on track, but nothing seems to help Ben. He keeps falling further and further behind.
The ever-observant Whittington thinks there must be a way to help. The cat lost his old home when the boy who owned him was sent away to boarding school because of a learning disability. Whittington doesn’t want to see Ben suffer, so the animals convince Ben to let his sister give him reading lessons in the barn. And when the siblings take breaks from the reading lessons, Whittington tells the story of his 1300’s namesake: a boy named Dick Whittington, who had a well-known cat himself.
It’s a tale of world travel and bartering, well-received advice, companionship, and hard choices. And when the inspiring story is finished, young Ben realizes that he has a choice to make as well.
Will he enroll in the summer reading recovery program to try to stay with his class, or should he accept being held back a year? The cat knows Ben will need the sort of courage and daring that Dick Whittington had to persevere, no matter what the future holds.