How To Steal a Car

September 14, 2009
Kelleigh Monahan, an atypically underprogrammed American teen, has just two assignments before the start of sophomore year: read Moby-Dick
and write a “how to” essay of “acceptable quality.” She hangs at the mall with her best friend, Jen, and occasionally with their co-boyfriend, Will. Like a person who picks a fight in order to feel some emotion, Kelleigh starts stealing cars, first as a lark but quickly escalating to truly risky business. Kelleigh has no remorse; her introspection extends mostly to how her crimes compare to her lawyer father's use of a technicality to win the release of a serial rapist. “Who's the real criminal here?” Hautman (Godless
) seems to be asking. Kelleigh is a sharp observer, especially of her parents' strained marriage, and she has an appealing wisecracker's wit: “Once you're a teenager, adults stop talking about the crazy stuff they used to do, and they start acting as if they were raised by the Amish.” Her worldview, however, remains bleak, as this what-I-did-last-summer story concludes: “Sooner or later everybody turns out to be a disappointment.” Ages 13–up.

November 1, 2009
Gr 7 Up-It's summertime in the Minneapolis suburbs, and 15-year-old Kelleigh doesn't smoke, drink (except a few times), do drugs, or do anything bad, really, except steal cars. Her career starts innocently at the mall when she sees a guy drop his keys in the parking lot. Kelleigh keeps them as a "souvenir" and soon discovers that the owner lives near her. One evening, she and her friend Jen take his Altima for a joyride. As the jam-packed plot unfolds, Kelleigh deals with unresolved issues regarding her best friends, Jen and Will; her lawyer father's adultery and decision to defend a known rapist; and her mother's use of alcohol and cigarettes to cope. She manages life by continuing to steal cars. Hautman packs a dense plot into this slim title and intermingles Kelleigh's story with two summer homework assignments: a reading of "Moby-Dick" and a "How-to" essay, for which the teen chooses the topic of stealing cars. Hautman's characters start off simple and likable, and Kelleigh has just enough sarcasm and teen angst to be endearing. However, as the story unfolds, the characters become inherently flawed with real human problems and vulnerabilities, and Kelleigh becomes an empty, judgmental girl who seeks to fill her life's voids with cheap thrills. Through her actions, the author allows readers to evaluate the protagonist's life and choices."Adrienne L. Strock, Maricopa County Library District, AZ"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2009
Grades 9-12 Fifteen-year-old Kelleigh is not the kind of girl who steals cars. But when a set of keys almost literally falls into her lap, she takes a strangers Nissan for a spin. Before long, she finds an excuse to do it again. Soon she has allied herself with a teen car thief who needs a new partner. Kelleighs behavior defies logic, even to her; as she says after the first theft, it only had to make sense for about one decision-making nanosecond. Using short, nonlinear chapters, Hautman introduces numerous elements: a maybe-gay boyfriend, a drinking mother, a philandering defense-attorney father. Yet not only does Hautman maintain total control, he also draws subtle parallels between the subplotsdoes Dads effort to get a rapist off on a technicality make him any better than his daughter who boosts cars? This tight, slim book is a moral brier patch that might leave some grasping for purpose, but most will identify with Kelleighs urge to break through lifes suffocating safeguards.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)