Customer Reviews

The Real Thief

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

 

 

Imagine that you are the Chief Guard of the King's treasury and things are disappearing from the treasury. Now imagine that you are falsely accused of taking things from the treasury by all your friends. Last, imagine you are forced to run away and live in a cave in the woods with home-made furniture and shoes. If this sounds interesting to you, you should read The Real Thief because all of these things happen and more!

I am an avid reader and this is the one THE BEST children's book I have read. Great moral and ethical values for a child to learn at an early age. Loyalty, honestly, and integrity are more important than money, and position. Also, when life seems to turn against you, sometimes your friends turn and run also. Can't understand why this book has not become as popular as James and the Giant Peach which was made into a movie and written by the same author. This was far far better and I think should be required reading for every child. Also the words used by the author will probably challenge the average reader and might possibly require a dictionary sometimes to be nearby. Which is not bad either.

Unfortunately it does not seem to be in hard back. A book you'd want to keep in your library even after your children are grown. Mine are now 19 and 17, so I am buying it for gifts for other children. Excellent book!!!

I so enjoyed reading "The Real Thief" numerous times to students and even wrote a script that was performed for a puppet show based on this fantastic story that teaches a most important life lesson. It prompted conversations about how we can all relate to being falsely accused of even the most minor offenses, and suspecting others of misdeeds when they are actually innocent. It is an especially heartwarming and engrossing tale told with an abundance of humor!

I originally bought this book for my 8yr old to read silently. But when I skimmed it myself, it was so lovely and humorous, I decided to read it aloud to him and my 6yr old as well. Then my 5 and 3yr old wanted in on the action, as they heard us! We have read it many times together now.

It's an animal fairy tale. Gawain the goose is a guard and wrongfully accused of stealing from the king's treasure house. He and the king are the only ones with keys, so everyone attacks Gawain because there is NO way anyone else could have stolen the treasure. They put him in prison, take him to court, and he is judged guilty. At the last moment before he is taken back to prison, he manages to escape and fly away. He is saddened by the loss of loyalty from his friends and the king, determined to never come back.

Of course we find out who the real thief is--a mouse--and the mouse goes through the throes of guilt as he watches Gawain get accused. He is ready to confess when Gawain escapes, and then he doesn't have to. But as the town continues to bad-mouth Gawain, the mouse decides he has to make things right. He takes several brave steps to restore Gawain's honor and ends with the huge trek to find and confess to Gawain himself.

The story has a happy ending for children who care about that (I do!). And it is very age appropriate (4-10yrs?). It is a lesson about loyalty, honesty, conscience, and honor, but in a way children can understand. It also taught my kids a little about courts and proper justice. It is probably above the heads of an average preschooler, but all my young children were enthralled to hear the plot unfold--it was very suspenseful. They particularly liked how they didn't have to wait long to find out who the real thief was... they were happy to know early and to see how the thief was going to make things right.

We have a number of Steig books, but this is the kids' favorite. It's kind of long, but the story goes quickly. The vocabulary is challenging, but that's supposed to be good for kids, and the text is not as verbose as Abel's Island and some others Steig has written. As an adult, I sort of wished that there had been a little more reckoning for the mouse =) but kids loved the mercy ending and understood that the guilt the mouse felt was supposed to be enough punishment.

This is a very well-told morality tale. I read it over a few nights to my kids, and they appreciated the story--even the courtroom justice section--they knew all the characters well, and were glad to hear it each night. I was wondering if they got the lessons that the story conveyed, so the day after we finished it I asked them all sorts of questions: what did we learn from this story? who was right? who was wrong? what could this character have done differently? and so on. Lo and behold, they got it! They learned some great lessons from this unassuming tale.(less)

This is a story about a goose who gets blamed for stealing treasure which he didn't steal. The best part was when you find out who the real thief is. I might have given it five stars if all the characters were human.

A book about a Chief Guard (Gawain the Goose) in the Kingdom of King Basil (a bear) who is falsly accused of stealing. Find out who the real thief is in this cute story filled with different animal characters and a neat plot! Another fun read!