Stealing Our Way Home

by Cecilia Galante

Overview

From the award-winning author of The Patron Saint of Butterflies and The World from Up Here comes a story about grieving hearts, broken families, and how speaking out can save them both.

Saying goodbye is never easy.Everything changed after Pippa and Jack's mother died last spring. Pippa stopped speaking, Jack started picking fights, and their father's struggling business began to fail. Now, with school starting again, Pippa doesn't know how she'll manage a class presentation on Spartan warriors when she can't even find the words to tell her father that she wishes he were home more. And Jack is struggling to understand his feelings for the mysterious girl next door. But when Jack and Pippa realize that their dad is getting so desperate for cash to keep the family afloat that he might be going to extreme -- and illegal -- lengths to make ends meet, they are faced with the biggest decision of their lives. How far are they willing to go to keep their family together?Stealing Our Way Home is a poignant, deeply affecting novel about falling apart, finding your voice, and the power of letting go.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338042986
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	06/27/2017
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Lexile:	700L (what's this?)
File size:	45 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Cecilia Galante is the author of books for children, teens, and adults, including The World from Up Here and Stealing Our Way Home. Her first novel, The Patron Saint of Butterflies, won a NAIBA Book of the Year Award and was an Oprah's Book Club Teen Reading Selection, a Book Sense Pick, and a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year. In addition to teaching eighth grade English, Cecilia also teaches fiction writing at Wilkes University's graduate creative writing program. She lives in Kingston, Pennsylvania.

Read an Excerpt

"We were talking about the ways they lined up for battle!" Mitch Stevens yells from the back row. "Ah, that's right," Miss Rhodes answers. "Who remembers what that was called?"Multiple hands shoot up in the air. Miss Rhodes surveys the class, looking pleased. "Jeremy?""It was called a flanks formation," Jeremy answers."Very close." Miss Rhodes walks over to the board and writes out a word. PHALANX. "It's pronounced 'FA-links,'" she says. "And what does this word mean?""It means they stood side by side, locking their shields and moving like one gigantic wall," Jeremy answers. "No one ever broke ranks or fell behind. That way, the enemy never got through." "Excellent," Miss Rhodes says. "Now let's talk a little bit about the weapons they used. Which, out of all of them, was the most important?" I'm only listening with one ear, because I already know the answer. Any Spartan warrior's most essential tool in battle was his shield, an enormous bronze disc that weighed close to thirty pounds. Besides protecting them from enemy blows, a Hoplite shield was also used as a weapon in its own right and to carry the dead off the field. Instead I'm thinking about what Dad did. Or at least what I think he did. Him and Jack, together. I still can't get those words out of my head. Spiderman. Batman. Middlebury. Or the way Jack's face looked when he saw the Batman mask on the floor of his room. The way he grabbed my wrist and yelled at me to write down what I knew in my little pink book and then told me that everything was going to be okay. Why does everyone say that everything is always going to be okay? What if it isn't? What if it never is again?

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/01/2017
Galante’s deeply empathic novel—told in alternating chapters by 10-year-old Pippa and her 12-year-old brother, Jack—explores sibling bonds, parental fallibility, and coping with death. After Pippa and Jack’s mother dies from cancer, their father loses control of his work, their home, and their family life, though he does a good job of loving his children while faking competence. Jack and Pippa, who hasn’t spoken since her mother’s death, both demonstrate resilience as they slowly realize that, as much as their father loves them, they can no longer count on him to be a reliable caregiver. When he takes extreme measures to secure their financial stability (and involves Jack), the children finally understand the precariousness of their situation; though the father’s desperate act seems improbable, Galante (The World from up Here) renders it entirely believable. Narrated in first-person present tense, the story has immediacy and strong momentum, both in terms of plot and emotional development. Supportive secondary characters with strong backstories are fully dimensional, and the setting—modest homes on a lake in Vermont—comes wholly to life. Ages 8–12. Agent: Stacey Glick, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Stealing Our Way Home:*"[Deeply] empathetic." — Publishers Weekly, starred review"A heartbreaking, uplifting ode to staying true to family even in the worst of times." — Kirkus Reviews"[T]his is a poignant tale of grief, healing, friendship, and personal endurance." — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

05/01/2017
Gr 5–8—Pippa's words have been stuck deep inside her since her mother's death four months ago; she hasn't spoken since. With fall arriving, her mother's isn't the only absence felt; Mr. Thurber, the wild heron they rescued, hasn't been seen lately, causing Pippa to wonder about his return and severing yet another tie to her mom. Her father is consumed by his job, leaving her in the care of her older brother, Jack. Though their father has the best of intentions, his absentmindedness with the family finances leads to mounting debt and poor choices. After squandering the family's savings and losing his livelihood and quite possibly the house, their father comes up with a fairly simple solution—wear Jack's old superhero masks into the bank to rob it. While family is indeed everything, is it worth doing something so morally wrong? It is only through her friendship with caring individuals and her realization of the gravity of her father's choices and their consequences that Pippa is able to find her words again. Told in alternating chapters between siblings, this is a poignant tale of grief, healing, friendship, and personal endurance. While portraying quite possibly one of the most irresponsible and misguided fathers in children's fiction, Galante crafts a story void of any dialogue from one of her protagonists until well into book's end, an impressive feat. VERDICT A viable choice for collections needing new realistic fiction or sibling stories.—Rebecca Gueorguiev, New York Public Library

School Library Journal

2017-03-29
What wouldn't a desperate man do to help his children? What wouldn't desperate kids do to save their dad and themselves?White siblings Jack, 12, and Pippa, 10, are drowning in grief after their adored mother's recent death. They reveal themselves in alternating first-person, present-tense chapters filled with keenly self-aware yet realistic-sounding observations not entirely devoid of humor. Jack's crushing pain often manifests itself in angry confusion and isolation; Pippa covers her despair with elective mutism. As if bereavement weren't awful enough, they soon learn that their financially strapped father has lost his business; there's no money for necessities and the mortgage on their lakefront house. Then comes another tremendous blow. Out of funds, credit, and options, Dad robs a bank while Jack waits, horrified, outside. In time Pippa pieces clues together and realizes what happened. In empowering Jack to prevent their father from committing another crime she discovers the strength finally to speak out; appalled and contrite, Dad surrenders and is imprisoned. This well-written novel isn't unremittingly cheerless. A sense of hope springs from two other well-realized characters—a white, teenage, new neighbor who's Jack's crush; and a kindly, white family friend and confidante. Each in her own way helps the children slowly emerge from darkness and allow their inner resilience to blossom. The novel's ending is most satisfying and touching. A heartbreaking, uplifting ode to staying true to family even in the worst of times. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews