Children’s Books: Grk and the Hot Dog Trail by Joshua Doder

In a FAQ at his Web site, author Joshua Doder (who also writes as Josh Lacey) lists the three books he would most like to have written. The three selected speak volumes about this particular writer’s work:

I suppose the books that I would most like to have written are the ones that I’ve read again and again throughout my life, so they’ve become part of me. If I was going to pick three -- because I can’t just pick one -- they would Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray and Tintin in Tibet by Hergé.

If you’re in a position to read books for children and you’ve not yet come across Doder’s Grk books, wait for it because they’re coming fast. The order in which they come will depend on where you live. For instance, in the United States, Grk and the Hot Dog Trail was published by Delacorte just last month, while those that watch book lists out of the UK would have seen Andersen publish the book back in 2006.

The order in which they come to you does not matter: you don’t need to read the Grk books in publication order to follow along. Here is what is important: each book is set in a different county: A Dog Called Grk (Stanislavia); Grk and the Pelotti Gang (Brazil); Grk and the Hot Dog Trail (USA); Grk: Operation Tortoise (the Seychelles); and Grk Smells a Rat (India).

This time out, while playing tourist during a visit to New York, Tim sees that someone has stolen the Golden Dachshund, a statue worth a billion dollars. Only Tim and his dog Grk can save the day. Doder’s Grk books are lightening fast adventures stuffed with sharp-humored charm.