It should be a simple story: boy adopts older racing dog, boy retrains dog for one last big race, dog wins race. In The Greyhound, however, this simple tale gets bogged down by an overabundance of complexities.

Danny has a lot on his plate – a new home, school, and friends, judo lessons, gardening, visits with a psychiatrist, a potential girlfriend, an annoying older sister, and an alcoholic father. This onslaught of activity frequently overshadows the central storyline of a boy and his dog.

While Whitby, Ontario’s John Cooper can be lauded for incorporating a variety of moral and social issues into the plot – references to Darfur and a grandfather’s letter home from the trenches of the First World War are both informative and relevant to the narrative – there is clearly too much thrown at young readers here.

With so many different narrative rabbits being chased at the same time, it isn’t until very late in the book that Cooper brings the story back on track. By then, readers will be hard-pressed to find their way back to the original premise.

No one said teenage life was simple, but there are limits.