Biscuit

One autumn afternoon, a boy named Marcus arrived at the library clutching a book he refused to open. He hadn't read aloud in class for months—the fear of making mistakes had silenced him entirely. Biscuit waddled over, sat down heavily at his feet, and let out a contented sigh. Marcus laughed. 'She sounds like my grandpa,' he said. For the next twenty minutes, Marcus read 'Charlotte's Web' to Biscuit, who occasionally thumped her tail at exciting parts. When his mother came to pick him up, Marcus was beaming. 'Mom, Biscuit really liked the story,' he said. 'Can we come back tomorrow?' His mother later wrote to tell us that Marcus now reads to their family cat every night—and he's finally raising his hand in class again.