Review Detail

Mission Impawsible (Roxbury Park Dog Club)

Middle Grade Fiction 279

Cute puppies make everything better.

March 04, 2016 (Updated: June 29, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Kim is a bit apprehensive about starting middle school, especially since her best friend Sasha has met a new girl, Taylor, and insists on bringing her into all of their best friend activities. Kim is excited about working at the local dog shelter as part of a community service requirement, especially since she is really good at comforting and controlling animals. Kim struggles in school a bit, and the hardest part of the volunteer experience is writing an essay about how her work has helped the organization. This should be easy, because when the girls find out from Alice, who runs the shelter, that it is in financial trouble, Kim comes up with an idea: the girls can walk dogs for people and bring the dogs to the shelter for play time. If they charge, the dogs get socialized, the shelter has money, and people will have more exposure to dogs that might then be adopted. Kim tries to balanceaall of her activities and keep her friendship healthy as well.

Good Points

This addresses lots of valid middle grade concerns in a constructive way. Kim's concern that she will lose Sasha to Taylor is a situation with which many middle school students struggle. It's nice that she and Taylor eventually become friends, especially since Kim is the one who realizes that Taylor is a bit scared of some of the larger dogs. The scene where she is trying, very constructively, to being this up with Taylor is an especially good one-- Taylor is very defensive, and the girls almost have a falling out until Taylor admits her fear. Kim's older brother and parents are concerned, but try to let her figure things out on her own.

The super cute covers of this series will make girls want to pick these up, especially since the dogs are adorable!

There are a lot of books where girls have businesses walking dogs-- Margolis' Girl's Best Friend, Greenwald's Welcome to Dog Beach, and even Coco Simon's Cupcake Diaries books. There are also books where girls make money babysitting, baking, and having nail salons. Readers of those books will appreciate how Kim and her friends combine the business aspect with community service! What I'd like to see now is a book where BOYS have a business of some kind!