From the legendary author of Hatchet, a laugh-out-loud misadventure
about a boy, his free-thinking dad, and the puppy-training pamphlet that
turns their summer upside down.**
Twelve-year-old Carl is fed up with his father's single-minded pursuit
of an off-the-grid existence. His dad may be brilliant, but
dumpster-diving for food, scouring through trash for salvageable junk,
and wearing clothes fully sourced from garage sales is getting old.
Increasingly worried about what schoolmates and a certain girl at his
new school might think of his circumstances--and encouraged by his
off-kilter best friend--Carl adopts the principles set forth in a
randomly discovered puppy-training pamphlet to "retrain" his dad's
mindset . . . a crackpot experiment that produces some very
unintentional results.
This is a fierce and funny novel about family, green-living, and
untangling some of the ties that bind from middle-grade master Gary
Paulsen.