Trouble with a capital T

I have to admit that I had a hard time getting into the book Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt, but maybe your experience will be different.  Henry is the younger son in a well-off family of Boston's North Shore, where life is calm, easy, and privileged. But things change when Henry's older brother Franklin is critically injured in a car accident involving Chay Chouan, a Cambodia immigrant.  Henry and Franklin were going to climb Mt. Katahdin some day, but now Henry is determined to do it on his own.  Hitching a ride to the mountain with his adopted stray Black Dog, the only person to give Henry a ride is - improbably - Chay.  The soul-searching was authentic, and Henry's attachment to the dog was beautifully described, but I thought much of the character development was weak and there were a few too many coincidences to make for a satisfying read.