This is the heartbreaking story of a young Cherokee girl who is ripped from her family and sent to a boarding school back in the 1950s, when the government did such unconscionable things. This is a story of will, survival, and holding onto your heritage. The character development, especially of Kit, is amazing. The hypocrisy of ripping a child from a loving family and putting them in harm's way is taken straight from real-life situations that occurred back then. I would recommend this to anyone interested in Cherokee history and the history of removal of Native American children that occurred in the U.S. and Canada.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley. My review is volluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 by Margaret Verble was not always an easy book to read. Not because it wasn’t well written, because it certainly was, but because the life of its young protagonist, Kit Crockett, was so difficult, so unfair. In it, Kit is secretly recording her own story from a “Christian” boarding school where she was sent when it was deemed her Cherokee relatives weren’t fit to care for her. It’s the 1950’s when such decisions were the norm.⁣
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Kit’s storytelling rings clear and fully embodies the intelligent voice of a 12-year old girl who’s already seen more in life than many adults. She lost her mother at 7, deeply loves her father, but he’s so deep in his own grief that he has little left for her. When a new woman moves in a house down the road, Kit is fascinated, quickly ingratiates herself and the two become friends. What might have been simple becomes complex and Kit’s life is fully upended.⁣
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I thought 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 was a wonderful character-driven novel and I truly loved the voice of Kit. My heart also broke for her, as will any reader’s. I don’t usually do warnings, but want to be clear that Kit faces situations no girl should ever have to endure. Those parts were tough, but I also loved her resilience and determination to live the life she wanted to live and not the one forced on her by those who called themselves Christians. This was an excellent, thought-provoking coming-of-age story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣
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Thanks to @marinerbooks for an ARC of #Stealing.

Let me start by saying this was not an easy read.
Not the writing style per say, but the topic.

Since her mother’s death, Kit Crockett, a young Cherokee girl, has lived with her grief-stricken father, who isn't neglectful but isn't comforting either. She's a lonely child spending lonely days far out in the country tending the garden, fishing in a local stream, and reading Nancy Drew mysteries from the library bookmobile. One day when Kit discovers a mysterious and beautiful woman has moved in just down the road, she is intrigued.

Kit and her new neighbor Bella become fast friends. Both outsiders, they take comfort in each other’s company. But due to a fatal crime, Kit is ripped from her home and Cherokee family and sent to Ashley Lordard, a religious boarding school. Along with the other Native students, Kit is stripped of her heritage, force-fed Christian indoctrination, and is sexually abused by the director.

The story is told through Kit’s secret journal entries. In these entries she tells us not only the story of how she came to be at the school, but the horrible experiences of her and the other children.

The story itself was engrossing about the cultural eradication and the forced conversion to Christianity of Native American children in the 1950s. The abuse of these children. It was at time heartbreaking and some passages angered me so much I had to put the book down.

it took me longer to finish this book because of it.

Again this is a heavy read, heartbreaking.
But I gave it 3 1/2 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARc of this book. All opinions are my own,

3 Stars
One Liner: The topic deserves more than what the book delivers

1950s, Arkansas
Kit Crockett lived with her father after her mother’s death. Her lonely days change for the better when she meets Bella, her new neighbor. However, a gruesome incident rips Kit from her Cherokee family. She is sent to Ashley Lordard, a religious school where Natives are ‘civilized’.
Kit narrates her story by writing it down to remember the things she has forgotten. She is determined to get out of the school to escape the ill-treatment and abuse. Can Kit survive this fight for her identity and freedom?
The story comes in Kit’s first-person POV.
Don’t read the Goodreads blurb, as it summarizes the entire book.

What I Like:
The book presented the hardships faced by Native Indians and the constant interference of religious people intent on converting them. It also dealt with how different tribes of Native Indians had their own opinions and prejudices of other tribes.
The scenes with Kit and Bella were rather sweet. Kit’s a smart kid and capable too. Her interactions with other characters presented a lot of information through insights that helped me visualize them easily.
The scenes at the Reverend’s house were some of the best in the book. We don’t need much to see the intent and the lengths to which people go to make things happen the way they want. And, of course, the power imbalance in society causing irreparable damage to countless innocent kids.
The limited scenes set in Ashley Lordard boarding school gave a glimpse of what little kids faced in the name of being ‘straightened out’. Despite the school housing white and native kids, the discrimination in treatment couldn’t have been more evident.

What Could Have Been Better for Me:
The book is described as “…an ambitious, eye-opening reckoning of history and small-town prejudices…”. While it does deal with the topic of religious schools ‘civilizing’ Indian kids, the book was predominantly Kit’s story. This means that the focus was on Kit rather than the said theme.
Since the story was written by a young girl, it goes in loops and circles. I could handle it in the first half, but it got way too loopy in the second half. This seemed more like an attempt to sustain the suspense of the ‘incident’ instead of focusing on what Kit goes through at school.
Kit would blank out at the most convenient places for the story to progress. While there are no rules for kids to react to traumatic situations, it got tiring when this happened whenever the plot needed it. My issue is that this wasn’t really necessary. Native kids got separated from their parents for the smallest of reasons (based on the articles I’ve read on this topic), so the core point shouldn’t be why Kit was taken away but what happened after she was.
The book has two graphic scenes of sexual assault. These come out of nowhere as the writing, until then, mentions abuse but doesn't go into detail. I was better prepared for the second scene (which was more graphic), thanks to my reading buddy, Rosh, who mentioned it in advance. Unfortunately, the scenes don’t add to the story (and contradict Kit’s habit of blanking out when things get tough).
The ending was open-ended and left to the reader’s interpretation. That meant many questions were unanswered. I wanted a hopeful ending, so I decided everything was eventually sorted out (somehow) for Kit.

To summarize, Stealing deals with crucial topics of religious conversions, control and abuse of natives, and the horrors of boarding schools for natives. However, it could have been a lot more impactful and poignant.
I’m a monitory here, so read other reviews before deciding. I really wanted to love the book and tend to be liberal with my ratings for topics close to my heart, but with this book, I couldn’t help but feel dissatisfied with the treatment on many levels.
Thank you, NetGalley and Mariner Books, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

In a Nutshell: A brilliant topic that the book does only some justice to. I would have loved this had it fulfilled the potential it had. The writing style didn’t make things easy. STRONG triggers for child sexual abuse.

Story Synopsis:
Kit Crockett, a Cherokee child, is currently living in a Christian boarding school. Through her secret journal, she tells us about her past and her present.
About four years ago, Kit was living with her father. Her mother having recently died, Kit and her father, though close, struggled to communicate through their grief. Kit’s new neighbour Bella ends up becoming a strong supportive figure in the young girl’s life.
How did the circumstances change such that Kit ended up in the boarding school all alone?
The book comes to us in the first person perspective of Kit, through her journal entries.

NOTE: If you want to read the book, don’t read the Goodreads blurb!
Where the book worked for me:
😍 A book about a Cherokee girl written by a Cherokee author. Representation well taken care of! I was surprised to discover how Native Americans also have their own prejudices about “Civilised Tribes” and “Wild Indians”.

😍 The first half of the story is much streamlined, despite the jumps in time.

😍 Many scenes between Bella and Kit won my heart. I also loved how Kit was written as an independent girl and her dad as an involved father. His portrayal helped beat the clichéd depiction of single dads in fiction who are usually either overprotective or abusive.

😍 The book throws a powerful spotlight on the forced (explicit or implicit) conversions of the indigenous natives to Christianity. Nothing is as heinous as treating fellow humans as less than oneself just because they believe in a different greater power. As a Christian, I find such scenes simultaneously depressing and infuriating, but that doesn't take away from the truth of the brutalities that have been wrought in the name of God and religion.

😍 This is the kind of book that will stay in your head long after the last page. The emotions and the concern for the character lingers in your head and heart.

Where the book left me with mixed feelings:
😐 Having Kit as the first person narrator sounds like a wonderful idea but ends up with a patchy result. I was initially reminded of Scout’s narration in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, where a child’s voice is put to brilliant use in bringing to us difficult social issues. Unfortunately, that promise fell by the wayside. Kit’s innocence helps us see things from a child’s perspective, thereby diluting some of the horrors (though not all of them.) However, she is an unreliable narrator through her habit of revealing only partial truths. There are so many things that could have been set right had Kit just opened her mouth at the right time. Moreover, her habit of random foreshadowing spoils many of the upcoming surprises and shocks.

😐 The child's voice isn't consistent. At first, I thought that because the book was written in flashback, the current age of the writer would give her added insights into her past. But this turned out to be the wrong assumption. There are many places where Kit spoke as a child would, but sometimes, she sounded like an adult. At times, she understood even complex words that most eleven-year-olds wouldn’t know, and at other times, she couldn’t understand a simpler word.

😐 The ending is somewhat open-ended. I think its interpretation will be quite dependent on readers, as to whether they want to consider it hopeful or abrupt. To my eyes, it felt very uncertain as we don’t even come to know who was reading Kit’s journals.

Where the book could have worked better for me:
😓 The blurb promised me a book about an Indian girl who has been removed from her family and sent to a Christian boarding school. As such, I had assumed the child’s life at school to be the primary focus of the book. But somehow, the school takes a secondary place, with the main focus being on Kit’s flashbacks. There is no smooth transition between her home life to her boarding days.

😓 Kit has a habit of going off into tangents in her journal. She jumps around from topic to topic and branches out even in between a memory. This might be authentic to how we speak in real life, but it sure makes comprehension difficult while reading. The book isn’t easy reading because of this creative decision.

😓 There is no time reference in the content. Had the blurb not mentioned the time period as being the 1950s, I wouldn’t have known where the place the story except that it would have been historical in some way.

😓 Whoever wrote the Goodreads blurb misunderstood the assignment big time. What we have in that section isn’t a blurb but a summary of THE ENTIRE BOOK, including the ending. What the heck!

😓 This might not be an issue for all readers, but the details of the sexual abuse were much beyond my tolerance level. Child sexual abuse is a strong trigger for me, and this book went into too much detail. I had to compel myself to continue through those scenes. Also, the graphic nature caught me unawares because up until that point, the writing had been pretty tame.


I floundered with my rating for a long time. After all, how can one not recommend a book that sheds light on such a horrifying part of history? However, every published work needs to be rated as a book and not for its theme alone. The content covers a difficult and relevant topic, so the intent deserves 5 stars. But the haphazard writing, especially in the second half, and the greater stress on Kit’s personal thoughts than on the events in the boarding school left me somewhat dissatisfied. I’d still recommend it, but mainly for the thought behind the words.

3.25 stars.

My thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “Stealing”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A sad, disturbing read. There are many scenes that made my stomach turn.
I understand the pre use of the book, I had issues with connecting with the characters.
I felt sorry for Kit. No child should have to endure What she did. I didn’t understand why they didn’t allow her to live with her aunt and uncle.

This was a riveting and heartbreaking read about a young Cherokee girl pulled from her home and put into a Christian boarding school. This depicts what she faces in her time there, what led to her attending the school and the dynamic between her and some of the other girls in attendance.

This is told in the kind of back and forth timeline that gives you little bits of information about how she wound up in her unfortunate circumstances through journal entries. Kit is such a great character and I immediately loved her.

The injustice this girl faces is devastating. The writing is great. Verble pills you wholly and tells the story of this young girl phenomenally. This is told in a time when white people were scooping up Indigenous children and stripping them of their culture, their homes, their families and indoctrinating them into a religion forced upon them as a commonplace occurrence and it is sickening.

I highly recommend this one.

This book is an Interesting historical fiction book about an half American Indian girl named Kit growing up in the 1950’s. She is stolen from her family and put into a state institution by the prejudices of small town people and corrupt religious leaders. The story is her perspective written in a diary form. I enjoyed the story but it feels much like a young adult novel. The story didn’t always flow as well as it could have but it made sense since it was written from a child’s point of view.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the advanced copy.

I really wanted to love this book but it was so slow. Told from a young girls point of view, this is about the Native American children who were sent to schools to learn how to be American. They were not treated well but we got to see very little of that because the main character rambled way too much. I couldn’t get into it,

3.5 stars. I really enjoyed the basis of the story, but I wanted more. Everything about the story felt unfinished.

Fresh take on the historical mystery set in the 1950's and featuring issues of racism against Native Americans. Told from the point of view of a child, the voice keeps the setting, but made the reading a bit less enjoyable for me.

I’ve never read her before, but I’m curious to now! I thought this was just so, so good about a young Native American girl named Kit Crockett who is living with her father and trying to navigate life without her mother. When a young woman named Belle moves in down the lane from her, she is fascinated. This is told in the first person, Kit is writing the story of how she ends up in a (terrible) place called The Ashley Lordard School. It will have you INVESTED. I loved her. And the ending was just brilliant – so impressed with the form of this novel. 5 stars

This was a very interesting book. I learned about a part of history that I was unfamiliar with and it was actually quite horrific. Unfortunately, the book did not bring me close to the main character, Kit, and this left me uninvested in Kit’s story itself. I had a difficult time connecting enough to finish the book. I appreciated the chance to read a digital ARC from NetGalley and Mariner Publishers. This opinion is my own. Two and a 1/2 stars rounded up to 3.

Quietly powerful because of its structure, this remarkable novel unveils Native American injustices from a Cherokee child’s perspective.

“It’s a lie that everybody pretends is true. Even we pretend sometimes, because to do anything else is too dangerous.”

Told through journal entries written by the young Kit, her story is not linear. That left me curious to read more. There is isolation and tragedy but also an ongoing thread of hope that may have only been possible to achieve through a child’s eyes. This is also told simply and directly, which worked perfectly for the narration.

Themes of stealing, dishonesty, prejudice and survival are all prevalent here. The more I think about it the more I can say I loved it.

This is the story of Kit who is 1/2 Cherokee and 1/2 white in the 1950s. The racism and treatment of indigenous people and people of color was the focus through the eyes of Kit’s journal. There’s abuse and violence and neglect that deeply affected me as well as Christianity justifying said inhumane treatment. The organization of the story thorough the words of Kit made the abuse even more horrifying to read. I’m not sure I “liked” this book it would recommend it but am glad I read it. Thanks to Mariner for the opportunity to do so.

My honest review is freely provided in return for the kindness by NetGalley and the author/publisher in providing me with this book.

Stealing is poignant story where Kit Crockett takes center stage. Margaret Verble brilliantly sets an atmosphere in the 1950’s while Kit tells the story.

I liked how 9-year old Kit was portrayed for her age, and how she had to grow up fast. How her thoughts unfold and she tells her story is well done in that not everything is well understood by someone that age. How her curiosity led her to a new neighbor, and the touching bond she formed with Bella, being in a home without a mother, worked naturally. The prejudices of the time, and the abuse at the school presented was well done - it made sense how it all executed and was handled.

The title relates to the book on many levels as much was stolen from Kit in so many ways, but much more lies within the story that speaks to resilience, friendship, trust, love, and endurance.

Unfortunately, I found it very difficult to relate to this book which read more like a young adult novel than adult literature. I realize that the contents of the book are based on a young girl's journal but I had trouble following the time sequence. Characters were not developed sufficiently for my taste and though I could empathize with the horrors of the Indian group home, I felt very separate from the descriptions.

After her mother’s death in 1950s Oklahoma, Kit spent her days fishing, gardening, reading, and trying to connect with her father through his grief. But then tragedy struck and Kit was taken from her Cherokee family and placed in a Christian boarding school against her will. In a series of diary entries, Kit recounts her memories of her home — and all the ways those memories and her culture are being taken from her in her new school.

This book is deeply moving and also has the kind of mystery plot that keeps you hooked from the first page. Margaret Verble does a great job of using a child's first person narrative voice for powerful storytelling. I bet this book would make for excellent discussion at a book club!

Karen "Kit" Crockett grew up in the 1950s countryside with her Cherokee mother and white father. After her mother's death, Kit spent most of her days fishing and reading books from the local bookmobile. When a woman moves into her great uncle's old home, Kit is curious about her and soon forms a strong bond with Bella. Things take an unexpected turn and Kit's life is flipped upside down when she is sent off to a Christian boarding school. She is abused, along with the other Native girls at the school, and is desperate to get back to her family, at any cost.

I appreciate the way this book is written — as Kit's journal — but at the same time, the style is not for me. The first-person POV of a child is a bit jarring and I had trouble connecting to the story because of it. I don't think everyone will have this problem, but it took me out of the narrative.

There are many layers to this story, including "stealing" as a concept and the various incarnations of snakes, which I think are really successful. The characters are vivid and the details are superb. It's a short read with important themes, and I recommend giving it a try!

Thank you to Margaret Verble, Mariner Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Stealing, Margaret Verble's new book, only gives dividends to the reader. Told through the journal entries of a 9-year old half Cherokee girl, it tells the story of how white society stole important pieces of her life. Kit Crockett, whose mother has recently died from TB, is being raised by her white father in a rural bayou area. She befriends and is befriended by the rather mysterious Bella who has moved into her deceased "Uncle" Joe's ramshackle cabin after his murder by a group of locals. A nosy neighbor, a misinterpreted event, and a protective father result in a tragic double murder. Despite Kit's mother's family's fight to take her in, she is sent to a Christian boarding school. Verble's book effectively reveals the abuses suffered by the female students at the school; readers will not soon forget the images she evokes nor will they not understood how much has been stolen from them. Stealing is a must read for all thinking and feeling people.