Grk (Josh Lacey) Books in Order

There are some series that begin with magic keys or secret maps. This one begins with a dog on the pavement. In A Dog Called Grk, Tim Malt brings home a stray and ends up pulled into a rescue mission that reaches far beyond his own street. From there, the series grows into a run of globe-hopping adventures where Tim, Grk, Max and Natascha keep finding trouble in new countries.

If you are seeing these books filed under Josh Lacey's own name, they are the same Grk adventures first published under the pseudonym Joshua Doder. The heart of them never changes. Tim is clever but still very much a normal kid. Grk is devoted, unpredictable and impossible to ignore. Max and Natascha bring extra nerve, speed and argument, which the stories need.

One of the pleasures of the series is how each book finds a fresh setting without feeling like a gimmick. Brazil gives the story a chase-movie energy. New York turns up the detective side. The Seychelles, India, Paris, Australia and Italy each bring their own danger, local color and villains. Josh Lacey keeps the travel broad enough to feel exciting, but always returns to the same basic hook, children on their own, thinking fast.

The tone sits somewhere between a classic children's caper and a modern action comedy. These books move quickly. The chapters are short, the problems are clear, and the jokes often come from the gap between how serious the danger is and how matter-of-fact the children try to sound. Even when the stakes involve gangsters, dictators or dognapping, the stories stay playful enough for younger middle grade readers.

Grk himself is a big reason the books work. He is not a talking animal or a magical helper. He is a very determined dog whose loyalties start the plot and whose instincts keep nudging the action in the right, or wrong, direction. The adventures are exciting, but the bond between boy and dog is what gives the series its warmth.

These books can be sampled one at a time, but they are even more fun in order. The friendships deepen, some villains return, and the running joke is that Tim keeps trying to do the sensible thing and somehow winds up in another international crisis. That is really the Grk promise, quick, funny adventure with a lot of movement and a surprising amount of heart.