About the Author

When he isn't traveling the world, writing about Grk, Joshua Doder is a reporter for the Guardian. He lives in London.

Reviews

“Lightly comic and cinematically adventurous, the plot zips along nicely.” —Kirkus Reviews

“This first entry in the series crackles with Doder’s crisp prose and absurdist sensibility.”—Time Out New York Kids

Gr 5-7-Grk, a small white dog with black eyes, finds Tim Malt near Tim's London home, setting into motion a series of fantastic, heroic, often fast-paced and sometimes humorous adventures. Grk belonged to Natascha Raffifi, the daughter of Stanislavia's ambassador to England. When a cruel dictator takes control of this small, mountainous country in Eastern Europe, the Raffifis are arrested and returned to their homeland. Tim's parents will not let him keep the dog, and so he sets out to find its owner. His ingenuity gets him from England to Stanislavia, where he is propelled into action that ultimately reunites Grk with Natascha and her brother, Max, and results in their escape from prison. Some characters are caricatures; many are likable and move the events quickly if implausibly to a satisfying resolution. Max, in particular, is used to insert occasional political commentary that seems to foreshadow his future. By novel's end, the children and Grk settle in with the Malts in London, with the promise of another adventure in which the murder of Max and Natascha's parents will be avenged.-Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at Washington DC Public Library Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

"Lightly comic and cinematically adventurous, the plot zips along nicely." -Kirkus Reviews

"This first entry in the series crackles with Doder's crisp prose and absurdist sensibility."-Time Out New York Kids