Since we're already on a crime kick...How to Steal a Car

I've read more books than I can count about teenagers with major life issues - or even teenagers without major life issues - who end up doing something self-destructive. You know, eating disorders, cutting, promiscuity, drinking. That kind of thing. It can be interesting, but it's almost a cliche by now.

In How to Steal a Car, by Pete Hautman, 15-year-old Kelleigh finds a more unusual outlet for her frustrations: car theft. A chance encounter with a dropped pair of keys turns into a summerlong crime wave for an otherwise normal girl.

Of course, she's got more going on in her life than grand theft auto, as you discover along the course of the book. Kelleigh's voice is easy to hear; she goes off on tangents, and fills in background stories as they pop up. Not all first-person books achieve this conversational quality. For all she's a thief (and of course hiding things from her friends), she's also interestingly honest.

This was one of those grabbed-it-off-the-new-releases-shelf reads that I'm glad I grabbed.