Initially, I admired this novel for older children and young adults because it dared to go places that few kids’ books do. The sympathetic protagonist, Edgar, appears to be a child with fetal alcohol syndrome. His mother, Stephanie, is mess. She works unskilled jobs (bartending and waitressing), drinks too much, lies, sponges off others, and can’t manage very long without a man—sometimes any man will do. As the novel opens, she and Edgar are fleeing the Toronto home of her latest boyfriend, Roger. He’s not the worst of the guys she’s been with, but she will later have no scruples about telling horror stories about his treatment of her in order to cultivate the next man’s sympathy.

A friend of a friend has advised her of a house-sitting opportunity in Dawson City, Yukon. Stephanie declares to her young son that she’s eager to remake herself in an entirely new place. She tries to sell Edgar on the relocation by promising him that he will be caring for a dog, Benjamin—something that greatly excites the boy. Once they’ve arrived in the northern Canadian city, Edgar bonds immediately with the large elderly dog. He communicates easily (and sophisticatedly) with Benjamin and finds it increasingly difficult to communicate normally with other humans in their language. Instead, he produces barks and whines, and is only able to get more complex ideas across to people by writing on a notepad.

Before Edgar becomes an almost completely dog-identified-boy (for lack of a better way of putting it), he and his mother are befriended by their neighbour, Ceese, and his school-aged daughter, Caroline. Ceese has a lovely girlfriend, Victoria, whom Edgar loves almost immediately. Knowing his mother’s patterns well, Edgar anticipates that Stephanie will prove to be a destructive force in the couple’s relationship. Determined to do his best to prevent her ruining things yet again, one cold night he makes a rash and dangerous decision—one that involves the dog, Benjamin.

In my opinion, that part of the book, approximately the last quarter, is a total mess. Any warm feelings I may have had towards the rather peculiar narrative that is North to Benjamin went entirely south. I found the conclusion super weird—unsettling and unsatisfying. I had a wonderful experience with Cumyn’s Owen Skye series, and so did many children I know. However, as well disposed as I am towards quirky kids’ books that are not formulaic and even refuse to toe the line, I really cannot recommend this one.