How to Steal a Dog: A Novel

Barbara O'Connor

Apr 2009 · Sold by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

About this ebook

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.

With unmistakable sympathy, Barbara O'Connor tells the story of a young girl struggling to see what's right when everything else seems wrong.

How to Steal a Dog is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year. This title has Common Core connections.

Ratings and reviews

This book shows honesty and heart. Even though Georgina wants to live in an apartment and she wants that $500 she is honest and confesses that she stole the owners dog. The unfortunate thing is that people do do this in real life. They steal animals and then they wait for the reward sign to go up and they say that they found the animal. I would recommend this book for anybody.

This story is heartwarming and awesome there are two kids... that don't have enough money to live in a house so they live in a car and are planning to steal a dog and wait for the original owner to put up a sign with a reward of 200 dollars. I think I've told you enough. C:

I read this book like four times before and I never put it down I live it and I will keep looking for books to read like this and you should try that book called a doigs way home that's an awesome book too

About the author

Barbara O'Connor is the author of numerous acclaimed books for children, including Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia; Me and Rupert Goody; and Greetings from Nowhere. She has been awarded the Parents' Choice Gold and Silver Awards, the Massachusetts Book Award, and the Dolly Gray Award, among many honors. As a child, she loved dogs, salamanders, tap dancing, school, and even homework. Her favorite days were when the bookmobile came to town. She was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, and now lives in Duxbury, Massachusetts, a historic seaside village not far from Plymouth Rock.