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Ringo Saves The Day!: A True Story
Beginning readers will love reading the true story of Ringo, the cat who alerted his owners of danger. This Level 1 Ready-to-Read is sure to be a hit with pet lovers!
One day, Ringo the cat leads his owners outside. "Meow! Meow!" he says. Ringo digs in some rocks. Why is Ringo digging? What will he find? Ringo is about to save his owners' lives!
One day, Ringo the cat leads his owners outside. "Meow! Meow!" he says. Ringo digs in some rocks. Why is Ringo digging? What will he find? Ringo is about to save his owners' lives!
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
1 person is currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Clements
140 books2,254 followersI was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1949 and lived in Oaklyn and Cherry Hill until the middle of sixth grade. Then we moved to Springfield, Illinois. My parents were avid readers and they gave that love of books and reading to me and to all my brothers and sisters. I didn’t think about being a writer at all back then, but I did love to read. I'm certain there's a link between reading good books and becoming a writer. I don't know a single writer who wasn’t a reader first.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was time to read. I know those quiet summers helped me begin to think like a writer.
During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written. Two things were amazing about that paper. First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class. And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”
That praise sent me off to Northwestern University feeling like I was a pretty good writer, and occasionally professors there also encouraged me and complimented the essays I was required to write as a literature major. But I didn’t write much on my own—just some poetry now and then. I learned to play guitar and began writing songs, but again, only when I felt like it. Writing felt like hard work—something that’s still true today.
After the songwriting came my first job in publishing. I worked for a small publisher who specialized in how-to books, the kind of books that have photos with informative captions below each one. The book in which my name first appeared in print is called A Country Christmas Treasury. I’d built a number of the projects featured in the book, and I was listed as one of the “craftspeople”on the acknowlegements page, in tiny, tiny type.
In 1990 I began trying to write a story about a boy who makes up a new word. That book eventually became my first novel, Frindle, published in 1996, and you can read the whole story of how it developed on another web site, frindle.com. Frindle became popular, more popular than any of my books before or since—at least so far. And it had the eventual effect of turning me into a full-time writer.
I’ve learned that I need time and a quiet place to think and write. These days, I spend a lot of my time sitting in a small shed about seventy feet from my back door at our home in Massachusetts. There’s a woodstove in there for the cold winters, and an air conditioner for the hot summers. There’s a desk and chair, and I carry a laptop computer back and forth. But there’s no TV, no phone, no doorbell, no email. And the woodstove and the pine board walls make the place smell just like that cabin in Maine where I spent my earliest summers.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was time to read. I know those quiet summers helped me begin to think like a writer.
During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written. Two things were amazing about that paper. First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class. And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”
That praise sent me off to Northwestern University feeling like I was a pretty good writer, and occasionally professors there also encouraged me and complimented the essays I was required to write as a literature major. But I didn’t write much on my own—just some poetry now and then. I learned to play guitar and began writing songs, but again, only when I felt like it. Writing felt like hard work—something that’s still true today.
After the songwriting came my first job in publishing. I worked for a small publisher who specialized in how-to books, the kind of books that have photos with informative captions below each one. The book in which my name first appeared in print is called A Country Christmas Treasury. I’d built a number of the projects featured in the book, and I was listed as one of the “craftspeople”on the acknowlegements page, in tiny, tiny type.
In 1990 I began trying to write a story about a boy who makes up a new word. That book eventually became my first novel, Frindle, published in 1996, and you can read the whole story of how it developed on another web site, frindle.com. Frindle became popular, more popular than any of my books before or since—at least so far. And it had the eventual effect of turning me into a full-time writer.
I’ve learned that I need time and a quiet place to think and write. These days, I spend a lot of my time sitting in a small shed about seventy feet from my back door at our home in Massachusetts. There’s a woodstove in there for the cold winters, and an air conditioner for the hot summers. There’s a desk and chair, and I carry a laptop computer back and forth. But there’s no TV, no phone, no doorbell, no email. And the woodstove and the pine board walls make the place smell just like that cabin in Maine where I spent my earliest summers.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 11, 2017
Part of the Pets to the Rescue series, this is an easy-to-read picture book about a cat who saves his family by locating a gas leak. Although the dangers of a gas leak may be unknown to beginning readers, they will find Ringo's heroism engaging.
November 13, 2017
I would have LOVED this series as a kid! I wish the illustrations were a bit more bold and fun, but the stories are so awesome!
August 23, 2018
the cat was smart and he saved his family. I want to read this again
July 3, 2015
I may only be rating this book 2 stars because I have easy-reader fatigue. It is another easy reader that engages the struggling reader with story tension, although I think it does the job less elegantly than the other books I use for the same students and same purpose. The plot involves the cat saving the day by helping its owners discover that they have a gas leak in their house, there by saving their lives. The gas leak feels like an obscure concept for young children, and doesn't engage the young readers in a way that an action packed near drowning or a fall off a cliff does. But the book does the job of presenting a story using easy to decode words.
November 14, 2011
This is a simple, beginning reader book about a heroic cat who alerts his people to a dangerous natural gas leak within their home. Ringo was a formerly stray kitten who had been adopted by his family, and he got his name because he tapped on doors “like a drummer.” Parents and teachers will no doubt have to explain the significance of the name “Ringo” to tots.
June 20, 2009
A story and heartwarming story about a little cat who saves his family. The words are fairly easy for beginning readers and the narrative is short, but interesting. This is a good book to read aloud.
September 25, 2012
A wonderful, true, children's story about a cat named Ringo who is adopted by a family, and then he saved them by identifying a gas leak in their yard. One of several true "Pets to the Rescue" stories.
December 23, 2015
Malachi loves it.
October 16, 2016
Great little book that tells a true story! Easy to read with nice illustrations.
August 10, 2010
I liked that the cat actually saved the peoples' lives and its own life.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews