Source of book: Audiobook from the library
I grabbed this quick read for a short trip since our library had it on the shelf, and we have enjoyed a number of Gary Paulsen books over the years. This one is co-written with his son, Jim, who is not really an author most of the time, but came up with the idea for the book.
The book starts off pretty normally, with Ben’s dad taking him on a road trip to go pick up a rescue dog (they adopt border collies.) At the start, dad tells Ben that he has quit his job, and will be flipping houses instead, which means some tight finances for a while, and possibly the cancellation of Ben’s hockey camp. Ben is pretty upset, and, in retaliation (sort of), he invites his friend and mentee Theo along. Theo has, shall we say, a reputation and a record, and Ben has been helping him with his schoolwork.
Okay, so far so good. But then, the four of them (counting Atticus, the old dog that Ben and his dad already have - he narrates a few portions of the book) start picking up additional people for the trip, and having increasingly implausible adventures. Soon, they have added Gus, a cranky mechanic - and his hopped-up schoolbus. And then Mia, a waitress who just quit her job after being sexually harrassed by a customer…who seems to know Theo, in all the wrong ways.
And then you have a scene with a cop, and everyone turns out to have some secrets, and they might not even get to the shelter in time to get the dog.
The book was amusing, but not quite as laugh-out-loud funny as, say Masters of Disaster, or Mudshark. As one might expect, the seams show a little between the two authors, although not as much as I expected. The two of them clearly have good memories of their years as father, son, and a house full of dogs (that part really happened…) It makes me happy that Gary Paulsen and his son had a good relationship (Gary passed on last year) since Gary had a pretty traumatic childhood, with alcoholic parents who pretty much left him to fend for himself in his teens.
Apparently, the two of them wrote a sequel of sorts to this book, Field Trip, which we may listen to as well.
Paulsen left behind a notable list of books, ranging from the more serious, like Hatchet and its sequels, to the hilarious, from the historical to the modern. His writing style (or styles, perhaps) are unique, and manage to be compassionate and gentle without in any way sugar coating the realities of life.
The audiobook was read by Mike Chamberlain.
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The Gary Paulsen list:
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