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 rate.

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

Now Veto and Bill have returned to the political stage in the form of the children’s book 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 stories of Veto and Bill as they leave their human companions behind at the Governor’s Mansion in Atlanta and meet furry friends in the woods behind Deal’s house in Habersham County. As they explore the mansion grounds and the woods of northeast Georgia, the cats learn about courage, kindness, friendship and loss.

“This book is intended to train the mind so that children learn to read better, but it is also intended to train the heart,” Deal said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Sandra Deal encouraged lawmakers to read in class like she did, Deal said, and he credits her with helping to raise awareness of literacy in the General Assembly.

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

However, a 2022 statewide test found that only 32% of fourth-graders in Georgia were proficient in reading. This year, 38% of third-graders in Georgia scored proficient on the standardized English test the state administers each year, up from 42% before the pandemic. A separate measure of reading ability derived from the test found that 64% of third-graders were reading at grade level, up from 73% before the pandemic.

The state made several is moving last year to renew literacy education. One of these efforts was House Bill 538known as the Georgia Literacy Act, which went into effect in 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 law’s progress. Established in 2017 by the governor’s office and the state legislature, the Deal Center develops research, grants and training programs to improve the literacy skills of children up to age 8. A portion of the proceeds from book sales go to the center.

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

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

Like Dan’s story, Deal says much of the book is true. He never intended to write fiction until his publisher told him to imagine what the cats do in the woods north of his hometown of Gainesville.

The book will be available from August 14th and can be pre-ordered now.

___

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 issues that are not public knowledge. Follow Kramon on X: @ckramon