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Some girls act out by drinking or doing drugs. Some girls act out by sleeping with guys. Some girls act out by starving themselves or cutting themselves. Some girls act out by being a bitch to other girls.
Not Kelleigh.
Kelleigh steals cars.
In How to Steal a Car, National Book Award winner Pete Hautman takes teen readers on a thrilling, scary ride through one suburban girl's turbulent life - one car theft at a time.
Anonymous
Posted January 27, 2011
this is an amazing book that, though it may not be incredibly action-packed, it really looks deeply into why people do things that others can't imagine doing, very realistically. I enjoyed it greatly, and would recommend it to people who enjoy books with a bit of crime in it.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 13, 2013
One thing is not to take cars screw cars what about boats
MundyC
Posted May 1, 2012
How to steal a car is about a girl who would rather steal a car than do drugs. It all started when Kelleigh and Jen were sitting out side of the mall and sees a guy who drops his keys. So Kelleigh takes them for a drive. After that she helps her friends steal cars and ends up stealing at least like 7. This book is really good. It was a really fast read and was very exciting. In this book you never want to put it down. I would recomend this book to people who don't like reading. It is a fast and interesting book to read.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Kelleigh Monahan doesn't drink, do drugs, talk back, or do any of the other things girls usually do to act out. In fact, if it weren't for a series of bizarre coincidences, Kelleigh wouldn't even have become a car thief in How to Steal a Car (2009) by Pete Hautman.
The first car, the Nissan, was barely even stolen. And after that, well, steal one car and suddenly everyone expects you to be a regular car thief or something.
That isn't to say that this book is an action packed heist book. It's not. Despite its title, How to Steal a Car is more about the ennui and general frustration so often associated with suburban life--especially for teens.
Kelleigh is surrounded by people lulled into complacency by their quiet, suburban town while she, much like Moby Dick's Ishmael as quoted in the beginning of the story, wants nothing more than to run away. Or, as luck would have it, to drive away in someone else's car.
How to Steal a Car is an interesting, super fast read. Unfortunately that does not make it particularly compelling. While Kelleigh's ennui was palpable, she remained painfully one dimensional as a character. Hautman's portrayal of the rest of the characters in the novel were similarly lacking in depth. The story was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end, but the Kelleigh at the end of the story was basically the same Kelleigh we met at the beginning: a girl frustrated with her life and unsure what to do to fix it.
Possible Pairings: The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron, Rx by Tracy Lynn, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford, Gone in Sixty Seconds (movie).
Anonymous
Posted January 13, 2012
As someone who is constantly reading, I'll be honest and say this book is nothing spectacular. That being said, I have read it about three times. No, it's not some earth-shatteringnovel but for those who enjoy a quick but enjoyable read, this is an excellent book for you.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.8458501
Posted June 14, 2011
How+many+pages+is+this+book%3F+I+need+a+longer+type+book+and+this+sounds+quite+tempting+to+buy+but+I%27m+not+sure+how+long+it+is...
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 29, 2011
awesome
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Pete Hautman has a way with words that is so blunt, so matter of fact, that you can't help but be interested. How To Steal A Car isn't all that action-packed, despite the subject matter, because of Hautman's writing style; yet I was wholly intrigued by it.
Kelleigh Monahan is a 15 year old smart girl with a nice best friend who she sort of shares a maybe gay boyfriend with. Her life doesn't appear to be too complicated. She has a nice mom and lawyer dad who works constantly, but then, out of nowhere, she starts stealing cars.
Hautman's foray into Kelleigh's thoughts about her life and her new hobby are funny, and somehow make perfect sense. In a way, Kelleigh's newfound desire to boost cars is understandable. She gets an odd rush from it even though it has no purpose for her. And it lets her escape the things in her life she would like to avoid.
How To Steal A Car is a short read that kept me interested, but it was lacking in direction. I was hoping there would be some kind of conclusion to Kelleigh's story and her car thievery, but it just ends. No conclusion, no solid ending. I want to know what happens next. What happens to Kelleigh? What happens to her family (who really aren't as great as they first seem)? And does she ever get caught? Does she even care?
This was still a good read, though maybe directed at a younger YA audience. Kelleigh is 15 and there is talk of alcohol, drugs, and sex, but nothing of the sort is ever explicitly discussed.
Opening line: The way this whole thing got started was completely coincidental and not like I planned it or anything. ~ pg. 1
Favorite lines: "You going to law school too, Kelleigh?"
"Actually, I'm thinking of becoming a criminal. To give the lawyers something to do." ~ pg. 88
M_Allred
Posted October 14, 2010
I Also Recommend:
The book How to Steal a Car is a story about a pretty calm and boring girl named
Keighly, that once she steals a car just for the fun of it just can't seem to
get enough. It has become almost a drug to her, and even though she tries to
stop she always wants more. Before long the local criminal Deke Mofit has seen
her stealing cars, and offers her a job that could make her a little extra
money. Although she thinks this idea is terrible, and knows she shouldn't she
just can't stay away and agrees to take the job. What will happen to keighly?
Will she get caught?
In my opinion the book was very average overall. The book was an easy read, and
to be honest that is why I choose it for my reading book. But it lacked too far
behind in the vocabulary and overall level of content that I am use to. I did
however like the theme of the book, and how original it is. There was a good
amount of dialogue and the characters seemed interesting, but given the
opportunity I probably would not read this book again.
Kelleigh never meant to become a car thief. She just happened to see a guy drop his keys without noticing one day at the mall, and thought it'd be a thrill to grab them.
With a best friend who's always telling her how boring she is, a defense attorney dad who cares more about getting a serial rapist off the hook than what's going on in his daughter's life, and a "boyfriend" who never makes a move on her, maybe it's not a surprise that Kell decides to take that thrill a little further.
But once she's started, Kell finds that the rush of car-stealing is hard to give up. She starts out small, taking her dad's car for a spin in the middle of the night, sneaking into her neighbor's house with an emergency spare key to borrow their ride. But as her parents seem to grow even more distant - from her and from each other - and her friends stay oblivious to the changes taking place inside her, she pushes the risk further and further. And there's no way of knowing how this chase scene will end.
Kell has a distinctive, engaging voice that will pull the reader into the story from the start. Though her behavior may seem bizarre, her reasons are clear enough to be believable and sympathetic. Her sense of humor will bring laughs even as readers cringe at the situations she gets herself into. Her growing disillusionment with her parents and friends is poignant and realistic.
This is a relatively short read, and difficult to put down as you wonder how much trouble Kell will get herself into, and how she'll get out of it. The conclusion is open-ended, which may frustrate some readers, but it feels fitting to her story. A great contemporary read for anyone who loves quirky narrators!
Anonymous
Posted July 8, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted April 12, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
Some girls act out by drinking or doing drugs. Some girls act out by sleeping with guys. Some girls act out by starving themselves or cutting themselves. Some girls act out by being a bitch to other girls.
Not ...