Cages by Kehret is an excellent book exploring the idea of the different cages we can be trapped in. Kit leaves the house upset because she hadn’t gotten the lead in the play and because her alcoholic step-father’s abuse. She runs to the mall where she sees her theater rival with her father buying jewelry to celebrate her lead-role. Impulsively, she steals some jewelry for herself, is caught and assigned 20 hours of community service at the humane society. Kit creates a cage of lies to cover her theft and punishment from everyone including her best friend. She falls in love with a terrier at the shelter that’s trapped in a very real metal cage and has to figure out a way to escape the cage of alcoholism that negatively impacts her as well. This is an excellent story that’s more sophisticated than I had expected.

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