How to Steal a Dog [Paperback]

Barbara O'Connor (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 28, 2009 | Age Range: 8 and up | Lexile Measure: 700L (What's this?)

Half of me was thinking, Georgina, don’t do this. Stealing a dog is just plain wrong. The other half of me was thinking, Georgina, you’re in a bad fix and you got to do whatever it takes to get yourself out of it.

Georgina Hayes is desperate. Ever since her father left and they were evicted from their apartment, her family has been living in their car. With her mama juggling two jobs and trying to make enough money to find a place to live, Georgina is stuck looking after her younger brother, Toby. And she has her heart set on improving their situation. When Georgina spots a missing-dog poster with a reward of five hundred dollars, the solution to all her problems suddenly seems within reach. All she has to do is “borrow” the right dog and its owners are sure to offer a reward. What happens next is the last thing she expected.

 

How to Steal a Dog is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 3-7– Georgina and her family have been living in their car since her father left and they were evicted from their apartment. Mama is working two jobs to earn rent money and trying hard to hold things together. Desperate to help out, Georgina decides to steal a dog for the reward money, laying out the details of her plan in a diary. However, the dog's owner can't afford to offer a reward, and Georgina ends up feeling sorry for the lonely woman. The girl also makes friends with another adult named Mookie, a kindhearted wanderer who is camped out at the abandoned house where she is keeping the dog. He shares his wisdom and offers help, whether she wants it or not. Georgina's narrative is honest and deeply touching, as she recounts how she and her brother try to survive their circumstances. Washing off in a gas station restroom and turning in grease-stained homework become fairly normal occurrences. Readers will identify with the agony and the embarrassment caused by being different, as well as Georgina's struggles with her conscience. The book's endearing humor smoothes out the more poignant moments, and the unfolding events will keep youngsters totally engaged. The gem in the story is Mookie, who manages to sparkle even when sadness threatens to devour the moment. Though set inside a heavy topic, this novel's gentle storytelling carries a theme of love and emphasizes what is really right in the world.–Robyn Gioia, Bolles School, Ponte Vedra, FL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

One day Georgina has a home, a best friend, and plenty to eat. The next, she's living in a car with her mother and brother. Carrying on as usual isn't possible: washing up in a restaurant bathroom, doing homework by flashlight, losing her friend. Mom works two jobs, but it's not enough, so impatient Georgina decides to steal a dog, hoping to collect a reward. She picks her furry victim and makes careful plans--but she doesn't count on her conscience. In stripped-down, unsentimental prose, Georgina tells her own story, her words making clear her vulnerability and heartbreak as well as her determination and pride. It's puzzling why Mom doesn't seek outside help for her desperate family, and the appearance of wise Mookie, a sort of transient deus ex machina, verges on excess. Yet in the end, this is truly Georgina's story, and to O'Connor's great credit, it's Georgina herself who figures out what's right and does it. The myriad effects of homelessness and the realistic picture of a moral quandary will surely generate discussion. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Square Fish; 1 Reprint edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312561121
• ISBN-13: 978-0312561123
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #50 in Books > Children's Books > Social Situations > Values
  • #67 in Books > Children's Books > Animals > Dogs
  • #82 in Books > Children's Books > Social Situations > Self-Esteem & Self-Respect

More About the Author

Barbara O'Connor was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. She draws on her Southern roots to write award-winning books for children in grades 3 to 6. Her awards include the Parents Choice Gold and Silver Award, American Library Association Notable Books, and IRA Notable Books for a Global Society. Her books have been nominated for children's choice awards in over 20 states and voted as a state favorite by children in South Carolina, Indiana, Kansas, and South Dakota. When Barbara isn't busy writing, she travels to schools to conduct writing workshops with young students, works in her garden, walks with her dogs, and thinks up ways to avoid cooking.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of heart June 4, 2009

By Teresa Bueti

Format:Paperback

I really liked this one. Georgina is desperate; it seems like her overwhelmed mother will never keep her promises to her children, after their father leaves and they are forced to live in their car. Georgina is tired of sleeping in the car, never having her homework, fearing that her classmates will find out. So she naively hatches her plan--steal a dog, then claim the reward. She is too young and hopeful to imagine what could go wrong, but it all does. And she struggles with guilt--for lying, for hurting those she starts to care about: the dog Willie and Carmella, his owner. As she struggles with the problems she has created, and talks with a homeless man who tries to help her, with his help she sees that "Sometimes the trail you leave behind is more important then the path ahead of you." Yes, there are troubling moral issues here, but that's an opportunity to discuss: is it wrong to act badly under bad circumstances? What else could she have done? What would you have done in her place? As a librarian and a mom, I can see a lot of potential for considering people less fortunate than most of us, and for talking about choices and consequences. I plan to read this one to my three kids, ages 8-12.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Feels Real To Life November 21, 2010

By NebraskaIcebergs

Format:Paperback

"How to Steal a Dog" by Barbara O'Connor surprised me, not simply because it covered serious subjects of separation, homelessness, and theft, but also because of how Barbara O'Connor tackled issues. Dark problems are not often explored in children's books. When they are, they rarely feel so real to life.

Georgina's father walked out on the family, leaving them without enough money to continue to rent an apartment. His departure is never explained, but the ache left in Georgina's heart is succinctly summarized in one heartbreaking sentence: "I wanted my daddy to come on home and change everything back to the way it was before." The embarrassment she feels about living in a car is also apparent in another compact sentence: "If there was ever a time when I wished the earth would open up and swallow me whole, it was when I turned around and saw Luanne looking at me and that car and all."

While the book revolves around a homeless family, it never becomes the equivalent of an after-school special designed to raise reader awareness about the plight of the homeless. It also never stoops to using their homelessness as a backdrop for the tale. Chapter after chapter, we feel the impact of homeless life: The family lives out of a car; They need to change locations regularly to avoid being arrested; They eat whatever free meals the mom can scrounge from the restaurant where she works; Their clothes and hair become scuffier in appearance. In the middle of this misery, Georgina sees a reward poster for a lost dog, which inspires her idea to steal a dog: After all, a $500 reward would provide the family with a home. The book revolves around her putting this plan in action.

This is a children's book, which means we know that Georgina will probably not end up in prison. What we don't know is whether Georgina will figure out that stealing is not a good idea. Yet the book never becomes a tract against theft. Georgina struggles with her conscience when she first meets the owner of the dog she stole, later when she decides to tie the dog up at an abandoned house until she can return it for a reward, and many more times throughout the book. In the end, her life does not suddenly become perfect, but this is all the more satisfying for this is how the book remains real.

26 of 34 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the better "how to" manuals out there March 20, 2007

By E. R. Bird HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Lure `em in with a cute dog and then hit `em hard and fast with a realistic story about how it feels to be homeless. It's the old bait n' switcheroo. Not that Barbara O'Connor's book, "How to Steal a Dog" plays anything but fair with her young audiences. After all, the first line in this book is the incredibly memorable, "The day I decided to steal a dog was the same day my best friend, Luanne Godfrey, found out I lived in a car." Bam! Right in the kisser. There's not a child alive, boy or girl, who isn't going to want to know more after those twenty-four words hit the page. O'Connor has created a nice little novel here with an ending that could have stood a little more padding. But while I feel that there were a couple off moments here and there, on the whole this is a new take on the question of whether or not a person can justify a wrong if they see no other way out of a predicament.

First of all, Georgina is not a bad person. If you saw her in school you might think she was a kind of unkempt and dirty person, but that's just because she, her little brother Toby, and their mom have been living in their car ever since their dad up and left them. It hasn't been easy for Georgina, of course. Her best friend Luanne has been distancing herself lately. The family's never safe and Georgina's having a really hard time getting her schoolwork done. If only there were some way she could get a lot of money for the rent of a new apartment. Then Georgina sees a MISSING poster for a dog offering $500 and it all comes together. Of course! The perfect solution! All she needs to do is find a rich dog, steal it, wait for the reward posters to go up, and then collect the money for her family. But every perfect plan, no matter how well executed, is bound to run into some unexpected mishaps along the way. Georgina is not a bad person, but she is a confused person. One that's going to have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy.

The ironic thing here is that, in a way, Georgina is exceedingly talented at what she does. O'Connor has her heroine writing dog stealing rules in her notebook that supplement the narrative beautifully. Her rules regarding finding a dog (avoid barkers and dogs that don't look loved) and ways in which a person should scout out a potential dog-stealing location are on the ball. And when those same rules come back to bite her in the butt later on in the story, you can see why. Planning is one thing. Executing, another entirely. Georgina is so good at her planning, in fact, that my credulity was stretched just a tad when she fails to remember to get the dog food and water. Still, with a myriad of things on her mind it's not impossible that when planning out her details she'd miss some of the more obvious needs.

The book essentially asks the readers whether or not extraordinarily bad circumstances are an excuse for bad behavior. It's a morality tale for fifth graders. Throughout "How to Steal a Dog" you definitely identify with Georgina. Little brothers are always annoying, but no more so than when they're sharing a backseat with you, rather than a bedroom. Now for the sake of the story, Georgina holds off on returning Willy longer than either her character or the book itself can really justify. I mean, once it becomes clear that the money is not forthcoming, there's no reason to put her through any additional mental anguish. Eventually Georgina and Toby meet and semi-befriend a homeless man that stands in as a kind of Thoreau-esque conscience. In him, Georgina is able to examine her own actions and assess the damage she's done. Really though, the character that I thought received the most interesting story arc was the woman Georgina stole the dog from in the first place. Known here as Carmella, she's overweight and not particularly attractive, but her love of her dog Willy is instantly recognizable. I liked O'Connor's decision not to have Georgina seriously befriend this woman after her dog mysteriously "disappears". She doesn't grow overly attached, though she does come to worry about how her actions have affected another human being.

Still, there were other things I didn't understand. Georgina constantly looks worse in school due to her circumstances. She apparently wasn't able to salvage her hairbrush when the family got booted out of their apartment. As the book goes on she gets nastier and nastier. How hard is it to locate another hairbrush? And wouldn't her mother want her kids to look halfway decent so that the authorities in the school didn't get suspicious and start calling the authorities? Then again Georgina's mom seems to be under a great deal of stress. She might not even be able to see past herself to notice her kids' increasing sloppiness. I did feel that the ending skidded to a halt without tying up a lot of loose ends though. It's a quick finish and then you wonder exactly whether or not the peaches and cream ending is really going to be as happy dappy as Georgina implies.

It's a bit of a tangled book, but that isn't to say that it doesn't make for a good read. Personally, I feel a revision here or there wouldn't have been out of place, but as it stands I hope kids discover and read it. Books about homeless kids have basically ground to a halt since the heyday of the Reagan era. Looking at the selection of children's fiction sitting on our bookstore shelves you'd swear that homelessness had been entirely eradicated in this day and age. This book puts a problem into perspective with a clever premise and a rewarding story. It isn't a perfect creation, but it may well be a necessary one. I appreciated the effort.