Stop Thief

The farmerÍs depending on Max to find the thief whoÍs been eating the carrots, berries, beans and cherries. So when the determined dog spies a bug chewing on a carrot leaf, the chase is on. But as Max follows the suspect, several farm friends offer to help ƒ between bites of familiar-looking snacks. Will Max catch the thief before all the food is gone? Young readers will find it hard to resist helping Max in his dogged, but perhaps misguided, pursuit.

In this majestic tour de force, celebrated historian Peter Linebaugh takes aim at the thieves of land, the polluters of the seas, the ravagers of the forests, the despoilers of rivers, and the removers of mountaintops. Scarcely a society has existed on the face of the earth that has not had commoning at its heart. “Neither the state nor the market,” say the planetary commoners. These essays kindle the embers of memory to ignite our future commons. From Thomas Paine to the Luddites, from Karl Marx—who concluded his great study of capitalism with the enclosure of commons—to the practical dreamer William Morris—who made communism into a verb and advocated communizing industry and agriculture—to the 20th-century communist historian E.P. Thompson, Linebaugh brings to life the vital commonist tradition. He traces the red thread from the great revolt of commoners in 1381 to the enclosures of Ireland, and the American commons, where European immigrants who had been expelled from their commons met the immense commons of the native peoples and the underground African-American urban commons. Illuminating these struggles in this indispensable collection, Linebaugh reignites the ancient cry, “STOP, THIEF!”

When Randall discovered a thief making off with his favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Pigglesworth, he did what any big boy would do. He set of on a chase to save his friend. Kids will love tracking Randall and the robber as they run out of the house and off to the zoo— past the alligator pool and through the bat caves— then on through the chocolate factory, the city museum, the fair, and even way up high in a hot air balloon. And they'll love yelling, along with Randall, "STOP THIEF!"