How to Steal a Dog

Unlike most children’s book authors, O’Connor does not specify her heroine Georgina’s age. Given that Georgina attends the same school as her younger brother and is old enough to be interested in painting her nails, she is likely to be in one of the higher elementary school grades and aged between ten and twelve. Regardless of her exact age, Georgina has seen her childhood cut short when her father leaves without a concrete explanation and she, her mother, and brother are evicted from their apartment and forced to live out of their car. Georgina is acutely aware of this injustice, noting that her classmates have drawers and not plastic bags for their things, and “they’d go to soccer practice or ballet class, not to the Laundromat like me” (33). Now that her mother is the sole breadwinner in the family, Georgina has to take on the supporting role of co-parent, as she is forced to give up her after-school extracurricular activities and look after Toby.

This sudden change in fortune affects Georgina’s sense of her identity. Matters which gave her a sense of pride, such as having a neat appearance, painted nails, and compartments for the things she has collected over the years, are no longer accessible to her.