I needed a book to read to my little nephew yesterday and I found I Am a Thief by Abigail Rayner on my kindle. Eliza Jane Murphy is the captain of the worm rescue team she sees a beautiful green stone on display in her classroom and she steals it. Of course Abigail feels guilty, she doesn’t understand what made her take the stone and sets of a chain of events where other things are being stolen. Abigail realizes that she’s not a bad person, people make mistakes and the stories plot is about forgiveness. Targeted at 4 to 8 year olds this is a perfect book to read to children in that age group, my nephew enjoyed the story and he understood the meaning behind it.

The premise of the book is great and the author really delivers. Great read. Highly recommended. .

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The cover of this book really drew me in. I love how bright and humorous it is. I really liked the illustrations. The story fell a little flat for me. I feel like it went on a bit too long.

I Am A Theif! By Abigail Rayner Target 4-8 years old. Preschool read aloud From North South Bokks, Inc.

A humorous children's story filled with sweet and gentle teaching around morals. The main character Eliza Jane Murphy, who is the captain of the worm rescue team sees a green glittery stone on display in her classroom. For some reason, "she has to have it". She puts it in her bag and steals it. This story is narrated in the first person, she feels extreme guilt and struggles to understand her actions when the subplots of the cat and the dog who steals sausages emerges.
Through her reflection, she comes to realize that everyone is also not perfect, including the animals. The moral is that one bad thing does not make the person bad.
This book is great for parental discussion and the illustrations were cute.

I like the potential behind this book but the overall no consequence for the stealing concerns me. I feel this needs to be reworked so that children understand that even though you own up there still has to be consequences so this action is not repeated.

I think my favorite thing about this plot is that the protagonist can't explain why she's taken the rock. She's compelled to do it but doesn't have the words to explain the why. WHile that can be hard for an adult reader to understand, it's fairly accurate. And she isn't given a value judgment for her actions. Yes, she has to apologize and face consequences. But Rayner is giving the reader a larger lesson that a single error shouldn't be the only thing that defines a person. She is more than this one mistake.

When Eliza’s class creates a display of green items, Eliza can’t resist a sparkly green stone, so she secretly takes it with her. But her “crime” weighs heavily on her conscious, stopping her from enjoying all of her usual activities.

In an attempt to make herself feel better, Eliza launches an investigation into thefts in her family and is shocked at what she finds: from the dog stealing sausages to her Grandpa taking his friend’s keychain, it seems everyone she knows is a thief! But instead of making her feel better, this just confuses her even more. She realises there’s only one thing she can do to ease the burden on her conscience, and it will take a lot of courage…

This heartfelt story will help children recognise feelings of guilt and remorse in themselves and make them realise they’re not the only ones who have ever felt like that. And it will show them that, as hard as it is to own up to wrongdoings, doing so is an act of courage that will cause the bad feelings to disappear.

I don’t know which technique the illustrator, Molly Ruttan, used to create the illustrations, but they have a soft, almost furry look to them, which really makes them stand out (sorry to all of you illustrators and art appreciators out there for my ignorance of art terminology!). There are also some beautiful details that add extra depth to the story, such as Grandpa fixing Eliza’s toy bunny while she’s talking with him.

A highly recommended read!

This is such a clever story that can teach kids about the importance of giving back! I really enjoyed the cute illustrations and how they fit well with the story.

This was a great story about making a wrong decision, then doing the right thing. A little girl takes a green rock from a display at school. She feels guilty and alone. She starts to realize that everyone is not just one thing, and she's not just a thief. She finds that her dog steals sausages and grandma steals sugar packets. She finds the right thing to do in the end. Super cute story with funny illustrations to make a child giggle. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am a Thief!
By Abigail Rayner and Molly Ruttan (Illustrations)

This book deserves 2 out of 5 birds from me… I was instantly drawn in because of the cover. I love introducing my kids to true crime books so there ready for “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” in a few years… jk jk.

This book was a bust. The only thing I liked in it was the art. The illustrations were cute and funny. Where the book lost me was with the over message/moral. It was so bad. The boiled down version is that if a person steals they can still be a good person. Which is true. But there’s no way I could explain this to my four year old clearly. She eventually gives back the stolen item and they call her brave. Which is true, but she received no consequences… As a mom I know it’s case by case, but this is not one I’d read to my kids. If a teacher read this in a class, they might have a few confused teachers. I hate being so honest….. but you go girls for writing a book because that isn’t easy!

This book launches on September 3, 2019! Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader e-book!

#bookstagram #childrensbooks #books #fiction #amreading #childrensfiction #bookcloud #reader #reading #read #bibliophile #thetheif #abigailrayner #mollyruttan #bookworm #summerreading #kidlit #mrsbirdswords #illustrations #kidsbookreviews #childrensbooks #bookstagrammer #summer #netgalley #IamAthiefNewFromNorthSouth

I am not sure about this book. I like how the author took the reader through the character's decisions and thought process of stealing something. There are two things I don't like: 1) the author fell short by not having the character directly ask for forgiveness 2)the parents comforted the child but didn't ask her to do the right thing.

This is an adorable children's book that I believe does a great job to teach children that while we all make mistakes, it is what we do afterward that really counts.

I got no problem with the illustration. It is good enough. The story was actually funny, but there is something wrong with the message that the author tried to put inside the book. I think the parents must explain to their children carefully, with everything that Elize did. I hope they still can take some lessons from this book.

This is a story of a little girl named Eliza Jane Murphy. One day Eliza sees a green emerald in her class and it drawn to it. Unfortunately she decides to take it for her own. Immediately she starts feeling very guilty about taking it without permission. She asks her family memebers if they had every stolen anything and some say yes and Eliza decides to investigate her whole family. Her conclusion is that everyone in her family are thieves and she comes by it honestly. Eliza due to her guilt does return the stone eventually.
I love the way that the story pretrays her feelings of guilt (her heart stopped singing). I also liked the ending which I will not give away (the last page of the book). It is a great story for children to learn right from wrong and also to be honest. The illustrations are very well done and tells the story through pictures also. Some of them made me chuckle. I do recommend this book to children 4+ as I think younger ones would not get the message in it.

I liked the story was simple and layered with cute illustrations. It had relatable content for young readers.
The idea of thievery was explored somewhat realistically. Though she does return the stone, I think parents and guardians could find the fact she is just congratulated for bravery disagreeable.
Overall I give it four star.

"I Am a Thief" is an adorable book about what happens when you take something that doesn't belong to you. The author and illustrator do an amazing job describing and visualizing the guilt, anxiety, and depression that comes with doing something wrong. Every child breaks rules at some point. It's part of growing up. This book encourages children to be brave enough to admit they were wrong and find a way to fix it. The illustrations are funny and endearing and the message hits home with a light, humorous touch. Well done! This will be added to our collection.

I thought this was a really cute title! If I were still a children's librarian, I would definitely have purchased a copy for our school's collection. One of my favorite aspects of this book was the color scheme of the illustrations--I thought it was a great contrast of light and dark colors, making for appealing images.

I appreciate the fact that the story hinges on a nonwhite character--after coming into my last school library, I noticed a lot of our books that had nonwhite characters featured them as a side character or as a character in some kind of racially-charged, historical strife. It's great to see more picture books like this one with regular, everyday life representation of nonwhite characters.

The story is about how Eliza Jane Murphy - line leader, captain of the worm rescue team - deals with the guilt that engulfs her after she impulsively pockets a sparkly green stone from her classroom's display table. The illustrations were cute, no doubt in that. After going through a couple of reviews posted on Goodreads, I decided to give the book another try as I had mixed feelings about it after the first try.

I'm now starting to realize what the author is trying to convey. She feels that the children who commit the act of stealing, even if it's done on an impulse, must be given a pat on their back once they decide to come clean. The fear of being reprimanded for such acts is what makes them more discreet and reticent. Eliza's decision to talk to her teacher about it is something which we should all take note of and it serves as an example of how one mustn't hesitate to do the rightful thing.

Note to the author: The Kindle version that I downloaded had pages that were mixed up. I tried to view the same via both the Kindle device and Mobile, but the result was the same. So it took me a while to make head or tail about the sequence of the story.

I could so relate to this book, as I am sure so many other adults can. Children aren't naturally thieves, i just think it is poor impulse control. So this little tale might just enlighten young ones to return what's taken, and maybe not do it again. Lesson learned.I liked the illustration and the fact that the book didn't come down like a hammer on kids.

I thought the story had a great premise and the illustrations were really fun and engaging. However, I feel like they missed out on a bigger teachable lesson about stealing and essentially just made it acceptable if you apologize. Yes, the girl was brave for returning the item and admitting to what she did but she faced no consequences and I don't feel that necessarily aligns with reality.