It's August, and Emily has big plans at the library. She's going to read lots of books and tack a paper fish next to her name for each one. Then Dawn Bosco says she can read more books than Emily. Not only that, both Emily and Dawn want to keep Pickle Puss, a stray cat thay found. They decide that whoever reads the most books can keep cat.

When Emily adds a fish for a book she read along time ago, she has one more fish than Dawn. She knows she's cheating, but she wants to keep the cat. What a pickle she's in.