Herald.com | Getting 'Pet Goat' a challenge for '9/11' fans

Herald.com | 07/12/2004 | Getting 'Pet Goat' a challenge for '9/11' fans: "It's not about to knock Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire off the bestseller lists, and Hollywood isn't clamoring for the movie rights, but My Pet Goat is turning into a must-read among some fans of Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11.
The only trouble is the story goes by a different title and it's hard to find unless you're in elementary school.
As shown in Moore's documentary, President Bush thumbs through The Pet Goat, the story's actual title, during a visit to Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Bloggers have weighed in with long-winded screeds citing The Pet Goat; the textbook in which the story appears, Reading Mastery II, Storybook I, was fetching as much as $32 on the Internet auction site, eBay, last week; and Internet retailer Amazon.com, which sells the textbook for $37.20, cannot fill orders until late July.

News outlets from around the world have called the Sarasota elementary school where Bush picked up the textbook, asking where they can get a copy, said Assistant Principal David Fultz.

"We've received calls from the British Broadcasting Corp., the Iraqi news network, The Washington Post, CNN," he said.

Hattori wouldn't speculate what people planned to do with the book since it's not exactly made for the coffee table. But a look at how it is being sold on eBay provides some clue: "Read the amazing story that had President Bush spellbound! Gather your friends and relations at your next party and read it to them!"

A quick read of The Pet Goat suggests this may be a polite way to end any party. The story, designed to help students master words that end in the letter "E," is about a girl and her ravenous pet. The girl's dad wants to get rid of the goat. But then the goat butts a would-be car thief and gets to stay."


BY DANIEL CHANG