Zeke Bartholomew Books in Order

The Zeke Bartholomew books start from a great middle grade fantasy: what if the kid who spends his time dreaming about spy gear and secret missions suddenly has to live through one? Zeke is a seventh grader, not the coolest kid in school, and definitely not the sort of hero adults would pick first. That is exactly why the books work. He is curious, awkward, inventive, and just reckless enough to open the wrong door at the worst possible time.

Then the door really does open.

In Zeke Bartholomew, an ultra-cool new neighbor named Derek Lance moves in next door looking like he walked out of an action movie. Zeke, being Zeke, snoops. That small act launches him into a hidden world of agents, code words, kidnappings, strange creatures, and a secret organization with the wonderfully overblown name SNURP. Before long he is working with Sparrow, a teen operative who actually knows what she is doing, while trying to stop a villain with a plan big enough to feel half spy caper and half comic book fever dream.

The tone is fast, loud, and funny. Jason Pinter leans hard into gadgets, disguises, wild chases, and villains who are just the right amount of ridiculous for younger readers. The books do not aim for realism. They aim for momentum. Zeke's ordinary suburban life gets flipped into a playground of underground labs, weird tech, and impossible stakes, and the fun comes from watching him scramble to keep up.

What keeps the series from being just noise is Zeke himself. He wants very badly to be brave, capable, and taken seriously, even when the world keeps reminding him he is still just a kid. He makes mistakes. He panics. He talks big and then has to figure out how to back it up. That gives the action a nice undercurrent of wish fulfillment mixed with embarrassment, which feels right for the age group. Readers who like heroes with brains, nerve, and a stash of secret inventions will probably settle in quickly.

It is all gloriously too much.

That is part of the charm. The Zeke Bartholomew books are built for readers who want motion, humor, and a hero who gets dropped into a mission before he is remotely ready. Expect secret plots, outsized enemies, narrow escapes, and a lead character who keeps discovering that pretending to be a spy is a lot easier than being one. If you want middle grade adventure with a heavy dose of gadget-driven chaos, this series knows exactly what game it is playing.