Do all kids think their families are weird? Matt sure thinks his family is. This is a story of living off-the-grid and school problems for Matt. He is failing math and having trouble making friends, but he has an idea. He begins his own business training sled dogs. Matt knows a lot about sled dogs. Can this help make his business successful? He learns some important life lessons in this realistic fiction story. The author also adds some nonfiction facts in the glossary and a diagram at the end. An enjoyable read!

Matt is failing math, so for extra credit he decides to offer dog sledding lessons, the only thing he knows how to do well, since his family already owns several sleds and 22 sledding dogs. After putting up posters, he gains first one student, Tubby, who comes with his out-of-control dog, and then another, Alex, who thinks she knows everything. Matt learns in a hurry that just because you know how to do something doesn't mean it's easy to teach it. It's even harder to puzzle out the magic numbers that his teacher is bugging him for every week! In one scene I particularly liked, Alex's mother came to film the lessons. Alex was mortified by her mother's bossiness and the fact that she had made Alex wear an outfit that matched her mother's. Matt realized that his own family wasn't so bad and that all his peers probably found their own families embarrassing.

Johnson delivers several messages neatly: it's OK for girls to be smart; a bully may be picking on you because he's jealous; it's brave to ask for help; and my personal favorite, all kids think their family is weird.

This would be perfect to read to middle school age children a chapter at a time. They'll love it!. 5 stars