Customer Reviews

How to Steal a Dog

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

I read this book to my daughters, ages 8 and 6. Wow! We couldn't put it down. Life in a car makes for desperate times. My daughters were shocked to learn how hard Georgina's life is and that she could be a real girl somewhere in the US. We found ourselves thinking of her in between our readings, wondering how she was coping and what would be her next move in her hairy plan to solve her family's terrible dilemma. I anticipate that my daughters will read this book again on their own in the future and I am certain it will bring tears and smiles in the end just as it did the first time.

This book was a case of there is a cute dog on the cover so we must obtain it. However, as I started reading it to my girl; I saw she was getting disturbed by the Georgina's situation. A homeless girl living in a car.

She was bothered by this as she is bothered by current events. If your child is similar and would fret about it, this book could wait for them to be older.

Overall, this is a good story. Though a little hard due to the homeless situation. Georgina's dad runs off and her world falls apart as her unskilled mother tries to keep them together as she tries to raise money for a down payment for an apartment by working two jobs.

True to the innocence of a child; Georgina gets mad over her situation and starts lashing out at mother. Eventually, she asks what it will take and her overly tired mother simply tells her about 500 dollars for a down payment to rent an apartment.

Georgina remembers seeing a reward poster for a dog where it offered 500 dollars and begins scheming to steal a dog to collect the money to help her mother. She even starts writing a guide book on what to do in order to clarify her thoughts on the plan.

The author does a great job telling this story as the plans and actions happened in away you could see a child going through such an effort. The mistakes and inexperience of a child comes through.

One could question the morality of this book but I viewed it simply as it shows that good people can do bad things in bad times. Yet, there are some things to make a person ponder about their actions. As Mookie would tell Georgina "Sometimes the trail you leave behind is more important then the path ahead of you."

Overall, I liked the book. It's a dark story in a kid way and as such I would not suggest it for every child. Especially if the child is a fretter and has been worried over current events with the foreclosures of homes these days.

By MJ (9)

How to Steal a Dog, by Barbara O'Connor

This book is about a girl named Georgina and her little brother Toby. They live in a car and their mother has to work two jobs to get money for food. Georgina gets sick of it and she decides to steal a dog when she sees an old reward sign for a lost dog. It says "Lost dog REWARD: $500".This gives Georgina an idea. If she steals a dog, the owner will put signs up. Then she takes the dog back, she gets the money, and her family can buy a house or an apartment. Georgina knows it's not the right thing to do. Will it work?

I really enjoyed this book. What else can I say? I loved How to Steal a dog! It's a story that is unforgettable. It's like a roller coater you've never been on yet. You don't know what will happen next! I must admit, Barbara O'Connor`s work is pretty good! Something at the end of the book made me so happy! You wanna know what it is? Well, I it's for me to know and you to find out! Get How to Steal a Dog today! Seriously!

When I started reading this book it was amazingly long. It is a get to the point kind of book.The kindle version is not even good. So I would say to get the paperback kind. Good for any active reader.

"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.

I think that this book is a great book with a sad ending. I like this book because this could really happen and it is based on a true story. There was a lot of action. The main characters acted like real kids act, and the dog was the kind I would love to have because it was well-trained. Reviewed by Bridgette, age 10

"How to Steal a Dog" is such a catchy little title with such a cute little dog posed against the cheeriest of colors that I assumed humor would jump off the pages. Not so. Actually, I initially missed that dog bone tied to a string. All is not as it appears. Be forewarned: This is a sad book. Even the conclusion, which reverses the terrible existence of one family's homelessness, is sad. But that's the point: The numbing reality of too many Americans is homelessness.

Another numbing reality is the woman whose husband runs off, leaving her with the children and all the responsibility. An already poor circumstance soon renders a woman on the streets, or in this case, living in their car. Georgina, the character through whose viewpoint we access the story, is so embarrassed that she won't tell her best friend. When she does, the friend deserts her, treating her, more or less, like an untouchable.

Georgina and her brother pretty much fend for themselves because the mother works two jobs. To deflect suspicion about a parked car in one place too long, the mother parks in a new spot each morning before she goes off to work and the children to school.

To help raise enough money for a real home--an apartment, house, whatever, it doesn't matter--Georgina makes a plan to dog-nap a hapless canine and get $500 in reward money. Her thinking is to find a dog whose owner simply cannot do without that companion and is willing to pay reward (think: ransom, extortion, rescue) money. She and her brother walk around until they find what appears to them to be a really nice house, the only one, in a run-down neighborhood. Yes, I thought that, too--What's wrong with this picture? One large house in a declining neighborhood. What Georgina sees is that the name on the mailbox and the name of the street are the same: Eureka! This must be a rich family!

So go all the decisions made by one desperate little girl in a desperate situation. And that's the author's point. There's nothing humorous about this book. It is a desperate story of desperation. With each decision and new act, Georgina buries herself into a deeper morass of immoral, unethical, unkind behaviors. The reader is left, drifting in a sense of dread, wondering how the story will end, how the girl will abandon this horrible plot of getting reward money off the woes of another terribly sad human being. The end cannot be good, the reader thinks.

It is and it is not. The conclusion left me drained, powerless to help the girl, the dog, or the owner. I know, I know, it's only fiction, but good writers can give us the truest truths in fiction, stories wiped clean of extraneous content, baring only the sordid reality--in this book--of homelessness and, almost as bad, one awful decision after another. What I advise is that each child who reads this book sit down and discuss it with an adult who has also read it.

This novel is not a classic in the classic sense, but "How to Steal a Dog" is worthy of reading because it yields itself to great discussion. It is recommended for readers ages 9-12. Middle school is definitely an appropriate place. In fact, I would love to be in a classroom whose focus is this book and listen to discussion or study products (power point, posters, glogs, a blog discussion--anything but a traditional book report) to assess the moral climate of that discussion and how the teacher connects.

Georgina's father has left and now she and her mother and little brother are homeless. Her mother ekes out a precarious living working two jobs, but it is not enough to get an apartment. Georgina is desperate to find a way to get enough money to move out of their car and comes upon the idea of stealing a dog and turning the dog into the owner for the reward money. She carefully plots a plan to steal a dog. Of course nothing goes as she has planned. The dog's owner is not the wildly affluent woman Georgina has thought her to be and the owner is distraught at the loss of her dog. Georgina has to decide to carry out her original plan or to find a way to return the dog to her owner.