"The story of a seagull and the cat who taught her to fly"

Kengah, a female gull gets covered by a black wave of oil while diving for herring.  She makes it to the balcony where Zorba the cat was resting.  Knowing that she will probably die, the gull asks Zorba to promise three things to her. 1) that he won't eat the egg, 2) that he will look after it until the chick is born and 3) that he will teach the chick to fly.  Zorba struggles with the first two promises, because of dangers like the friend of the family who comes to Feed Zorba while his family is away, rats and cats that are up to no good.  However, he also has the help of Einstein, Secretario, SevenSeas and the Colonel, three cats that help him.  When the chick is born, she immediately takes to Zorba and calls her "momma."  The hardest promise for Zorba to keep is teaching the chick how to fly.  When information that Einstein gets from the encyclopedia doesn't help the chick learn to fly, Zorba must talk with a human who takes Lucky, the gull up to the tower pf Saint Michael's.  Lucky is very afraid, but she conquers her fear and flies.  I would probably have the students read this book in literature circles and ask them to stop at certain points to predict what will happen.  I would let it be a discussion in which they could talk about other things they wanted to as well.