Shoplifting, family alcoholism, and a struggle for personal honesty are the themes in this competently drawn problem novel told in third person and featuring ninth-graders Kit and Tracy, long-time best friends. A strict and caring teacher plays a supporting role.

It's bad enough that Kit doesn't make the cast of the school play; when she goes home, her stepfather is drunk again. Later, seeing conceited classmate Marcia at a jewelry store, she impulsively tries to steal a bracelet and is arrested, fined, and sentenced to a period of community service at the local Humane Society. Kit's shame and humiliation increase as she lies to keep the incident secret, even from steadfast friend Tracy; worse, she discovers that her final exam in speech is to be an oral report on shoplifting. Kit's character and her distress are simply drawn but believable. The plot takes several melodramatic turns (a beloved stray is put to sleep just as Kit is arranging its adoption; her mother is suddenly hospitalized; her stepfather goes on another binge and has a serious auto accident) that make the concluding release still more effective: Tracy confesses eloquently to her class and is awarded not only an ``A'' but a coveted scholarship. Kehret pushes her message hard, but in positive ways. (Fiction. 11-14)"

Gr 6-9-- In a vulnerable moment of self-pity, 14-year-old Kit Hathaway pockets an expensive gold bracelet in a department store and is arrested for shoplifting. Sentenced by a juvenile-court committee, she is assigned 20 volunteer hours at the humane society. There she falls in love with a spirited little terrier who, tragically, is euthanized before Kit can find a home for her. She also finds it increasingly difficult to keep her shoplifting a secret, especially from her best friend. It is during a final class speech that Kit decides to reveal what she has done. With painful realism, Kehret shows the legal and emotional ramifications of teen shoplifting, but this is much more than a cautionary tale. Corollary themes of parental alcoholism and its incipient child abuse and animal population control are deftly handled. The story slips occasionally toward easy solutions, especially when Kit and her stepfather, avowed adversaries, too easily settle their differences. Nevertheless, Kit's determination to free herself from the cages of alcohol enablement, jealousy, and, ultimately, the secret of her crime make her an appealing protagonist. --Sylvia V. Meisner, Allen Middle School, Greensboro, NC