Cages

Peg Kehret is SO inspiring to me I originally don't really like reading but when I was in fourth grade my teacher recommended this book for me and I read it and I got sucked into it and then I kept getting them and they got better and better and now she is my favorite author so I think you should definitely get this book!!!!

Cages was a really good book with some sad parts like with Lady. I especially liked the ending. My favorite part was when Kit got shop lifting again after she shop lifted a thought she was going to ask Mrs. Fenton if she could pick something else. One more thing,that was the best book ever.

I give this a 4 stars because it was a great book, but the ending was a cliff hanger. 📕

Awesome book. Makes me cry every time I read it!

Grandaughter loved it

Another great story!

Peg Kehret was one of my favorite authors when I was much younger. Most of her novels deal with preteen protagonists who find themselves in danger when they inadvertently stumble across some kind of criminal plot. It's not the most original premise, but Kehret's work stood out for me on account of her genuinely engaging characters, well-paced suspense, frequent dollops of humor, and the genuine love of animals that seems to work its way, at least a little, into everything she writes.In "Cages," Kehret sets aside her usual formula: this time, it's her protagonist who's on the wrong side of the law. Kit Hathaway thought she had a good chance at the lead role in the school play, but when the cast list is posted, her name is nowhere on it. Coming home from school in a bad mood, the last thing she needs is to discover her stepfather's drunk again. Fed up with his boorish behavior and her mother's enabling, Kit storms out of the house. A bit of window-shopping at the mall seems like a fine way to pass the time until she has to go home again, but when she runs into the spoiled, obnoxious girl who won the lead role she'd so coveted - and she's there with her father to celebrate her accomplishment with a new piece of gold jewelry - Kit decides it's time, just once, for her to get something she wants too, and she slips a gold bracelet into her pocket. It's the impulse of a moment, an act entirely out of character for the quiet, studious ninth-grader - but with the flash of a badge, the words "I'm with store security," Kit's whole life is about to change.It's not a thriller, but somehow "Cages," even more than two decades after I first read it, keeps me turning pages as hungrily as any of Kehret's novels of suspense ever did. Sentenced to community service, Kit becomes a volunteer for the Humane Society, bringing to the fore the novel's central metaphor: Kit feels just as trapped and desperate as the unwanted animals in their cages. It's a pleasure to watch the troubled girl blossom into a young woman of rare strength and courage, with the aid and guidance of a warm, wise cast of mentors and friends. Without ever coming across as heavy-handed or denying the reality of emotional pain, Kehret delivers a strong message of personal accountability: you can't control the cards you're dealt, but it's up to you how you play them. One of her greatest accomplishments here - and an unfortunately rare one in the world of children's literature - is Kehret's complex portrayal of Kit's mother and stepfather. It would have been easy either to make them simple villains on the one hand, or offer them pat and perfect redemption on the other. Instead, they are portrayed throughout as flawed and fallible people doing the best they can while trapped in cages of their own, and Kit learns to love and respect them as they are even as she rejects some of their values and priorities."Cages" is a slender novel that packs a surprising emotional wallop. I still can read the last third or so of the book only through a blur of tears. Please read it. (And then, if you love it as much as I do, try Kathe Koja's "Straydog," an equally trenchant - but somewhat heavier - novel about a likable but troubled teenage girl who volunteers with animals.)

Cages SummaryCages is a book about a young girl that is about thirteen years old named Kit Hathaway. Kit always feels like she is in a cage. That is were the title comes in. What she means when she says "I feel like I'm in a cage," is that she is either stuck in the middle of a difficult situation and doesn't know what to do. Kit gets caught in her first cage when she tries out for the play. Kit wants to be the lead role Frankie. So she tries out for the play and she thinks she did pretty well. So when she went back to see if she made it or not, she seen her enemy Marcia's name by Frankie. This meant she made the part that kit wanted. She promised her friend Tracy that if either of them made it that they would do some part in the play even if they had to work back stage. So she didn't even want to work back stage she was so upset, but she didn't want to break a promise to her friend. After school that day Kit went to the mall and went to a jewelry shop called Parries. When she got in the store she saw just the person she wanted to see Marcia! When she walked in Marcia saw her and called her over. When Kit got over there Marcia told her that her daddy was buying her a new necklace because she got the part in the play. Kit was so upset. She went over and looked at the bracelets and she decided that she might want to steal it. But she was caught in a cage. She stole it she thought that she might get away with stealing it. She walked out of parries with it in her pocket. When she walked out an undercover security gourd caught her told her that she needed to come to her office. When she got down there lots of things happened. After she got out the security gourd told her she had to do 20 hours of community service at the animal shelter. Later in the book Kit's mother had to be rushed to the hospital. Kit was in the school at the time. The principal called her down the office but Kit didn't know what it was about. When she got down there the secretary told her that her mother was in the hospital. She asked what it was about and the secretary told her that she didn't know and that she would drive her down there. When she got down to the hospital she found out that her mother had an appendixes problem. A little bit after that in the book Kit gets a scholarship for 9th grade.I would recommend this book to about every age group especially girl grade 6th - 8th. I would recommend it to them because they can communicate with Kit and the problems that she has had in the book. I would give this book 4 ½ stars out of 5