steal

We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things
$18.98
This guy is amazing, saw him on Farm Aid and immediately bought his CD. I was not disappointed.Extreme talent is not an overstatement.

Grateful Dead - 5" Classic Steal Your Face Logo - Sticker / Decal (Lightning Bolt/Skull)
$2.39
We also carry a full line of CD, DVD, Tape & Record Supplies! As well as thousands of discontinued and out of print sound recordings (CDs, LPs, Cassettes). Quantity discounts available - please inquire. We sell wholesale and retail.

One By One the Penguins Slowly Steal My Sanity Keychain
$3.00
Text on keychain: One By One the Penguins Slowly Steal My Sanity * Durable acrylic key chain is crystal-clear and double-sided so the artwork or message is seen twice. * Sturdy metal ring holds your keys securely. * Full color printed images or messages are included. * If you have new ideas or need help selecting text for your custom keychains please contact us. * Size: 2 1/8" x 3 1/2" (Approx. business card)

How to Steal a Dog
$6.99
"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.