Pepper

The Puppy Place #71

by Ellen Miles

Welcome to the Puppy Place! Where every puppy finds a home.Charles and Lizzie Peterson love puppies. Their family fosters these young dogs, giving them love and proper care, until they can find the perfect forever home.Pepper is an adorable Cavapoo puppy who's found himself in a "no dogs allowed" building in New York City. Can Charles find him a home?

Genres: Chapter Books, Childrens

52 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[Boyles Kids Book Tracker · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Charles and his mom are visiting Joy in New York City. It was supposed to be a girls trip, but Lizzie decided it was more important to be home on Halloween with her friends. The doorman at Joys building, named Pete, is hiding a stray puppy named Pepper, although the building does not allow dogs. He tells Charles to keep it a secret, but Charles does tell his mom in chapter 7. We didn't really like that a grownup was asking a kid to keep a secret because that's kind of sketchy and weird. In the end, they are going to change the rule of the apartment, but in the meantime, the whole village will help with Pepper.

[Sakura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to love ‘The Puppy Place’ sooo dearly when I was younger… it’s kind of crazy that they are still publishing books for the series, even now! Anyways, I randomly read this one because remembering how much I used to adore this series, my Dad brought this one home as a bit of a joke. Still, I decided to read it and review it, because it definitely couldn’t hurt.

This book follows Charles’s adventures in New York with his mom and her best friend, Joy. At her apartment, Charles discovers a secret…
The doorman is hiding a puppy!
Since dogs aren’t allowed in the building, the man had no clue what to do, but couldn’t find it in him to not care for this adorable, scrawny puppy. Charles decides to help him…. But while doing so, he’s keeping a secret from his mom! Will anyone find out about this puppy…
And if they do, what will happen to Pepper?

Overall, this was a cute, simple starter chapter book. On the back, it says it is intended for 2nd-3rd graders, and I think it’s perfect for that age group. The story is light, the words are mostly simple (besides some longer words explaining places in New York), and there is no real sensitive content. I myself felt bored by the chess elements of the book, and found the story to be very simple, but I’m no longer the age group these books are targeted at. If you or your child is the age group this book is meant for, it’s a great read, and that’s why I’m still giving the book 4 stars.

(This book contains Halloween and a boy keeping a secret from his mother ( he does later confess, so I think kids could learn a lesson here, as he feels bad and his mother does scold him for it. ) All in all this book doesn’t have any content that any child should feel very uncomfortable with.)

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really a good, easy to read, simple chapter book for early readers. There were some bigger words and more complex sentences that might make it a little challenging for those new to chapter books, but the story is interesting, and it isn't a complicated story, so it should be easy to follow. My only complaint is that it depicted a child keeping a secret, that he keeps together with an older man, from his mother. The story briefly mentions that being bad, and of course in this kind of book there doesn't need to be too serious a theme, but I'd have soon preferred it not be used as a storyline if it isn't going to be properly identified.

Granted this is the only volume of this series I've read, so I wouldn't count this against the series. Based on my library's circulation it's a very popular series, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

[Kali · Rating 3 out of 5]

My animal loving son liked this book, but he wasn’t overly excited about it. I was over it by the time we were done reading. The plot didn’t move along very quickly, and the ending was very sudden. I felt like we were left without much of a resolution for sweet Pepper, trying not to give too much away here. Overall this story just fell a bit flat. Not bad, but not great.

[Lorrie A Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Love this series!

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a sweet story.