Larceny Is NOT the Best Policy! I Am A Thief! by Molly Ruttan

Eliza Jane Murphy was a girl of impeccable character-–the Line Leader for Ms. Delano’s class, Chief Officer of the Worm Rescue Team, and a good classmate to all...

...until she saw the big shiny green stone on the Exploring Green Table.

It was gorgeous--and irresistible.

Suddenly Eliza Jane was something else--

I am a thief!

And with the misappropriated gem in her purse, suddenly Eliza Jane felt like a different person. Even her handwriting was crooked! She was repentant right away. but there was no way to put the green stone back without admitting to the whole class that she was a thief. She pretended to help look for the snitched stone, but she felt as if her guilt made her glow a tell-tale green all over.

At home she asked her dad if he had ever stolen anything.

“Never!” he said, looking shocked.

Mom admits that she had once taken a magnet, but returned it right away. Nana Iris said she occasionally takes a couple of sugar packets home from the coffee shop, and Grandpa George confessed once swiping his friend Bill’s Yankees keychain.

“By golly was he mad!” he chuckled.

Her baby brother Jack once confiscated a submarine sandwich from a sunbather’s beach bag. Uncle Tim’s goat had pilched Jack’s underpants as a snack. It seems everyone (but Dad) had been a thief. But somehow that didn’t make Eliza Jane feel any better. In fact, her guilt just got worse.

I knew what I had to do.

Confession is good for the soul, in Abigail Raynor’s latest, I Am a Thief! (North/South Books, 2019. An admission of guilt is made to Ms. Delano, who commends her courageous contrition, the green stone is penitently returned to its place on the Exploring Green Table, and with amends made, Eliza Jane realizes that nobody is perfect.

But artist Molly Ruttan’s illustrations for this story are indeed very nearly perfect, with pathos and plenty of visual humor, as Eliza Jane spots a pencil on Ms. Delano’s desk clearly labeled Bill’s Café, Dad is caught sneaking a big bedtime slice of cake from the fridge, and even her cat is seen making off with Eliza’s bedtime bunny. This story’s theme of repentance offers much insight into a common childhood lesson on the virtue of honesty as well as human foibles.

Abigail Raynor is also the author of The Backup Bunny. (1)