Mission Impawsible

Roxbury Park Dog Club #1

by Daphne Maple, Annabelle Métayer (Illustrator)

What’s better than being best friends? Being best friends who volunteer together at the Roxbury Park Dog Shelter! With a focus on friendship, family, and cute canines, Roxbury Park Dog Club is perfect for tween readers who snap up books from series like Cupcake Diaries and Candy Apple, or for anyone who loves dogs. This first book follows Kim, who’s great with dogs. She’s the only person who can get her neighbors’ dog, a sweet but lazy basset hound named Humphrey, to go on his daily walk, and she makes it look so easy that her brother calls her the dog whisperer. So she can’t wait to start her seventh grade volunteer working at the Roxbury Park Dog Shelter. But the shelter is running out of money and might have to shut down…unless Kim and her friends Sasha and Taylor can save it!

Genres: Friendship, Middle Grade

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2016

Reviews

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine the Baby-sitters Club, only for pets, and you will have a good idea of what this new series is all about. Best friends Kim and Sasha and new girl Taylor are volunteers at a dog shelter that is struggling financially. In Mission Inpawsible, faced with the prospect of losing their beloved volunteer positions, the three girls brainstorm a way to keep the shelter open: a club where owners can pay to have their dogs play with other dogs in a canine "after-school" program. In When the Going Gets Ruff, their dog club takes in Sierra, a large, exuberant dog who is very difficult to control. I'd be shocked if these books are not directly inspired by the Baby-sitters Club, as the two series have so much in common. Both feature girls starting their own business due to the needs of an adult in their life (in the BSC, Kristy's mom, and in this case, the shelter owner). Both clubs also have a strong leader who has "great ideas" (Kristy in the BSC, and Kim here) as well as a notebook for logging details about their charges. As a child of the late 80s/early 90s and someone who is not crazy about animals, I much prefer the Baby-sitters Club, but I do see the appeal of these even if they are not my exact cup of tea. The Shelter Pet Squad series is better written, but these are written at a slightly higher reading level, and have more of an upper elementary sensibility, whereas most other pet shelter books out there right now are geared toward second and third grade.

[Danyelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was a great one. It is very age appropriate. I like how there were three friends that made up the club. It reminded me of the Pony Pals and The Saddle Club. The Pony Pals and The Saddle Club have lessons in them. Just like The Roxbury Park Dog Club. They have lessons in friendship and problem solving. I thought that was cool. Instead of horses in the book, it is dogs. My two favorite animals are Dogs and Horses. The Pony Pals and The Saddle Club had no business side to it.

Kim, Sasha and Taylor are volunteering at the dog shelter. As they spend time at the shelter, they notice that some things are old. The owner, Alice, was stressed one day. They talked to the other volunteers who know more about the situation. Kim and her friends try to come up with something to help the shelter. Did they come up with something to try and save the shelter? You have to read the book in order to find out.

I have read the reviews of this book. Some were comparing it The Babysitters Club. I have never read those books. I have heard of those books. Those books never caught my attention. I was all about animals. If a book had some kind of animal in it, then I was reading it.

Overall, it was a cute and good book. Great for 2nd or 3rd graders. Great for morel lessons in friendship and problem solving. Will I read the rest of the series? I don’t know.

[Lilian Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trite stereotypes at their best. Taake this book to the pound immediatly!!!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Odporúčam vám túto knižku. Hlavne pre tých ktorý milujú psov🙂

[Daniela Dudiňáková · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda boring for me

[Elizabeth S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute middle-school story about a girl who loves dogs, volunteers at the local dog shelter, and devises a way for the shelter to stay open when facing financial struggles. There is some tween friendship angst, the my-best-friend-now-has-another-friend-too-and-can-all-3-of-us-be-friends-but-it-isn't-the-same type. The book is done well, but is certainly more appealing to the middle-grade-girl market.

I received an arc of this book for free through the Goodreads FirstReads program. Thank you!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in a goodbooks giveaway. As a 45 year old woman I am not the intended audience for the book. But I can say this was an adorable children book. I thought it would be ideal for 3rd through 7th graders, especially if they are animal lovers. I do have a daughter that is the right age range for this book and will be passing it on to her. I think she will enjoy it.