I Am a Thief!

T H A I E M F A !

I er • illustrated by Moll n y a R y Ru il a g i tta b A n by

To Jon, Franny, and Henry.

And to the goat who stole my underpants when I was three. I forgive you. —A.R. To my mom and dad, Thank you for the paper and crayons!

And thank you for believing in me. — M.R.

Text copyright © 2019 by Abigail Rayner.

Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Molly Ruttan.

First published in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in 2019

by NorthSouth Books, Inc., an imprint of NordSüd Verlag AG, CH-8050 Zürich, Switzerland.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Distributed in the United States by NorthSouth Books, Inc., New York 10016.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-0-7358-4289-2 (trade edition) 1 3 5 7 9 • 10 8 6 4 2 Printed in TK www.northsouth.com

I AM A

THIEF!

by Abigail

Rayner

illustrated by Molly

Ruttan

I am a thief.

Me. Eliza Jane Murphy.

Line Leader. Caring Friend.

Captain of the Worm Rescue Team.

THIEF!

The stone made me do it.

It sparkled at me.

In a flash of brilliant green it was . . .

N I M E!

And my heart . . .

Stopped singing.

My letters went wonky.

I was too heavy to swing.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked for the stone.

My cheeks burned!

I wanted to put it back . . .

But what if someone saw?

At home, I hid it.

But I felt like I glowed green.

“Daddy, have you ever stolen anything?”

“Never!”

His shocked eyes made my not-singing heart crumple up.

“Mama, have you ever stolen anything?”

Mama smiled. “A magnet.”

“Did you give it back?”

“Of course. Why?” I shrugged.

My own mother! A thief!

“Grandpa, have you ever stolen anything?”

Grandpa chuckled.

“I once took a Yankees keychain from my friend Bill.”

“Did he find out?”

“He did. By golly was he mad!”

AND Grandpa George?

And why was he laughing?

Who else in my family was a thief?

I decided to investigate.

Nana Iris admitted to taking packets of sugar from the diner.

Often!

AND her dog James was a notorious sausage thief.

My baby brother Jack once swiped a lady’s sandwich.

Two Christmases ago, Cousin Clara stole Santa’s beard.

Well, she tried anyway.

And Uncle Tim’s goat pinched Jack’s underpants.

And ate them.

It seemed like everyone in my family was a thief.

Maybe I should have felt better, knowing I wasn’t alone . . .

But I didn’t.

I knew what I had to do.

The next day I gave back the stone.

Ms. Delano did not send me to the principal, or say my days as line leader were finished.

She said I was . . .

BRAVE?

I told Ms. Delano I came from a long line of thieves.

She had probably stolen something, too, if she thought about it.

Then I realized.

Nobody is just a thief.

Everyone is a lot of things!

We put the stone back.

And my heart started singing again.

I decided to close my investigation.

But it turned out, it wasn’t quite finished . . .

W

hen Eliza Jane Murphy—line leader, captain of the worm rescue team—impulsively pockets a sparkly green stone from her classroom’s “Exploring Green” display table, her heart crumples.

My heart stopped singing. My letters went wonky.

I was too heavy to swing!

I wanted to put it back . . . But what if someone saw?

But when she discovers that nearly everyone in her world has stolen something at one time or another—from her baby brother to her nana’s sausage-swiping dog—Eliza realizes that no one is just a thief.

And she knows what she must do to make things right.

A hilarious and heartfelt story about stealing and finding the courage to do the right thing