Rach's Reading Club

A Pup Called Trouble is an Adventure story about a coyote pup who finds himself lost in New York City after following his boundless curiosity one too many times – which, incidentally, is how he earned his name back home.

Born in a rural area eighty miles from New York City, Trouble causes his coyote family no end of worry with his unfettered curiosity about what exists beyond his home territory. This coupled with a dangerous curiosity for all things related to humans ultimately results in Trouble climbing into the back of a farm family's truck, bound for the Farmer's Market in New York City. Once the farmer discovers him, Trouble flees the scene and becomes lost within the heart of the city. With the help of a crow, just as aptly named Mischief, Trouble arrives at Central Park, where he is largely free to wander and live and explore. When local residents and a certain Animal Control officer finally become aware of the coyote living in Central Park, Trouble's Cityborn animal friends must hatch a creative plan to get him back onto the very same truck that had brought him here, so that he can return home alive.

This book was a fairly quick and easy read. Trouble's Central Park friends – a crow, an opossum, an owl, and a fox – were easily my favorite part of the story; all of them, especially Mischief the Crow, inject some much-needed personality into the book's flat storyline. Trouble makes for your typical always-curious, always-in-trouble main character, which can be fun, but his lack of depth and learning his lessons means that the other characters carry his story along.

That isn't to say, though, that this is a bad story. The premise is interesting enough and is based in real-life occurrences, and the writing in and of itself is fine. The chapter titles try to be fun and clever, at times including a play-on-words with Trouble's name. The vocabulary also provides a healthy level of challenge that should benefit young readers.

For me, A Pup Called Trouble lacks depth, substance, and (at times) street smarts; but I do think this book is worth stocking for elementary- and middle-school-aged children to read and enjoy the dynamics that exist among the animal characters.