This is a nice story about running away and homelessness – that’s right – nice. Everyone we meet in Kristin Butcher’s entertaining first novel is nice. Our 12-year-old hero, Nick, is personable and sweet. His single mom, who can throw a football and whistle through her fingers, radiates patience. Cole, Nick’s new stepdad, is a compassionate journalist. Even Luther, our irascible old runaway, is an eloquent bum.

Nick is on the streets when we meet him. He’s on the fly because not only did his mother ruin their perfect relationship by marrying Cole, but now, adding insult to injury, she’s pregnant. While he’s pounding the pavement, Nick runs into Luther, and the two end up spending the night in an abandoned mansion. Nick’s life on the run ends the next day, but not his pull towards the crusty Luther. A furtive and fitfully caring relationship ensures. Nick uses Luther as a sounding board to sort out his conflicting feelings about his new family situation. As Nick has an increasingly harder time mustering resentment over his stepfather, the plot shifts to his growing awareness of the plight of homeless people and the central mystery of just who Luther is and why he is living on the streets.

Butcher’s story moves at a lovely clip. Her narrative is solid and well polished, the dialogue between Nick and Luther particularly effective. Luther utters every word with a glacial irony that is lost on Nick but won’t be on the reader. Homelessness is a timely theme and it’s presented in an informative yet safe manner. Perhaps too safe? There is never any fear that everything won’t work out beautifully for all these characters. Unlike Paula Fox’s Monkey Island, for example, the grittiness of which resonates so powerfully, this book’s underlying sense of comfort blunts the topic’s edgy realism. Still shelf space should be cleared for this likable story where kid and curmudgeon both come of age.