A Georgia governor’s latest work after politics: a children’s book on his cats ‘Veto’ and ‘Bill’

ATLANTA (AP) — Former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has written a children’s book about his two cats, continuing his efforts to improve the state’s literacy rates.

“Veto, the Governor’s Cat” is a tribute to his late wife, Sandra Deal, who read books to students at more than 1,000 schools across Georgia while their cats, Veto and Bill, pranced across the governor’s mansion.

Now, Veto and Bill have made a return to the political scene in the form of the children’s book written by Deal, who served two terms as governor from 2011 to 2019. Sandra Deal, a former public school teacher, died in August 2022 from cancer.

“Veto, the Governor’s Cat” tells the tales of Veto and Bill as they leave their human companions at the governor’s mansion in Atlanta and meet furry friends in the forest behind Deal’s home in Habersham County. As they adventure across the mansion’s grounds and into the northeast Georgia woods, the cats learn about courage, kindness, friendship and loss.

“This book is designed to educate the mind to get children to read better, but it’s also designed to educate the heart,” Deal said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Sandra Deal encouraged legislators to read in classrooms the way she did, Deal said. He credits her with helping to raise awareness of literacy issues in the General Assembly.

“If you really think about it, literacy is one of the primary building blocks of civilization,” Deal said.

But a nationwide test administered in 2022 showed only 32% of Georgia fourth-graders were proficient in reading. This year, 38% of third-graders in Georgia scored proficient on the standardized English Language Arts test the state administers each year, down from 42% before the pandemic. A separate measure of reading derived from the test showed 64% of third-graders were reading at grade level, down from 73% before the pandemic.

The state made several moves over the last year to revamp literacy education. One of these efforts was House Bill 538, known as the Georgia Literacy Act, which went into effect July 2023.

The Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville is working with government agencies to track the bill’s progress. Founded in 2017 by the governor’s office and state legislature, the Deal Center develops research, grants and training programs to improve literacy skills for children up to age 8. A portion of the book’s proceeds will go to the center.

Deal’s interest in improving early literacy skills stemmed from his early work on criminal justice reform, when he learned more than half of Georgia’s prison population at the time had never graduated from high school. Expanding education within prisons wasn’t enough for Deal. He wanted to combat low literacy rates within the prison “on the front end” by improving reading education for young children.

In a more personal effort to improve criminal justice outcomes, Deal hired inmates in the prison system to work at the governor’s mansion. One of his hires even makes an appearance in Deal’s book as “Dan,” which is a pseudonym.

Like the story of Dan, much of the book is true, according to Deal. He never intended to write anything fictional until his publisher told him to imagine what the cats got up to in the woods north of his hometown of Gainesville.

The book will be available for purchase Aug. 14 and is available now for pre-order.

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Charlotte Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @ckramon