FINISHED:

Doder, Joshua. (2007). Grk and the Pelotti gang. New York: Delacorte Press.

[Here's my ACL review:

Three notorious sibling criminals have robbed all of the biggest banks in Rio and three young people in England decide that it is up to them to catch the thieves. Tim, Max and Natascha (the last two of whom are orphans that have recently come to live with Tim and his parents) and their dog, Grk, steal Tim’s parents’ credit card and buy tickets to Brazil. There they are treated as royalty (it was Max and Natascha’s father who initially captured the Pelotti gang and put them in prison) and Tim sets off with Grk by his side to catch the robbers himself – aided by a couple of young street urchins that have attempted to hold him for ransom. Plot hole after plot hole opens up, the point of view shifts awkwardly, and characters that we are led to believe are important are left by the wayside. The Pelotti brothers themselves open the book, but then aren’t heard from again until the middle, Max and Natascha seem to just be along for the ride, never getting the justice that it seems like they are craving – in fact, once the kids get to Rio the book becomes a travelogue of Brazil with Max and Natascha jumping into a limousine to explore the sights and even play soccer in a World Cup stadium (!) – and, Tim’s parents show up in Brazil just so that they can sit by the pool at the hotel and fall asleep letting Tim get away from them again. Even Grk himself oftentimes feels like an afterthought, never being the central character as the book title would suggest, but as something that is along for the ride and occasionally mentioned when it is required of him to bite a bad guy in the leg, hand, etc. A sequel to A Dog Called Grk (Delacorte, 2007), which should probably be read first in order to get a handle on the relationships between the 3 young people (which isn’t really explained here), this one’s just a dog.]

STARTED:
Konigsburg, E.L. (1970). (George). New York: Atheneum.

[Continuing my quest to read the complete works of Konigsburg. She's amazing, and this one is quite odd... to say the least...]

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