Kelleigh Monahan stole her first car—a Nissan Altima—on a whim. A week after picking up a stranger’s car keys dropped in a mall parking lot, she happens to recognize the owner and his car in the driveway of a home not far from her own. Late that night she returns to the house and simply starts the car and drives away. The adrenaline rush of the experience might have been a one-time thrill, but as time passes, Kelleigh steals again. Life is complicated: Friendships are changing, her parents’ marriage is in trouble, and her attorney father is defending a serial rapist. Stealing cars for her own satisfaction, and later in an alliance with a boy who is part of an established car theft operation, becomes one area of her life over which Kelleigh exerts total control. This unpredictable novel defies expectations as Kelleigh steps outside her role as suburban teen and repeatedly breaks the law, but is neither caught nor punished. Hautman raises questions of morality and ethics while avoiding any hint of didacticism, leaving the final analysis of Kelleigh’s choices to the reader. (Age 13 and older)

From National Book Award winner Pete Hautman, the story of a girl who acts out by stealing cars.

Some girls act out by drinking or doing drugs. Some girls act out by sleeping with guys. Some girls act out by starving themselves or cutting themselves. Some girls act out by being a bitch to other girls.
Not Kelleigh.
Kelleigh steals cars.

In How to Steal a Car, National Book Award winner Pete Hautman takes teen readers on a thrilling, scary ride through one suburban girl's turbulent life - one car theft at a time.