FOR TEACHERS, LIBRARIANS AND READING GROUPS
The Skadi books are written for readers aged 5–9 as early-reader chapter books: roughly 1,500–3,000 words each, with illustrations throughout.
STRUCTURE THAT WORKS IN A CLASSROOM
Every book is built on the same five-part shape. A case appears. One dog forces a way in. One dog finds the trail. One dog handles the danger. And Skadi puts it together.
Because the structure repeats, a young reader learns it once and then predicts it — which is confidence-building rather than boring, and makes the books work well for guided reading and for reading aloud in groups.
FOUR DOGS, FOUR JOBS
Each book gives one dog the spotlight while the other three still do their jobs. That rotation means a class can follow the whole team across a term, and every child finds the dog they like best — and then asks for that dog's book.
NO VILLAIN, EVER
There is no antagonist in these books. The mystery is always something lost, misplaced or misunderstood, and the resolution is always a discovery rather than a punishment. Nobody is caught and nobody is shamed.
ENDINGS THAT RESTORE SOMETHING
Each book closes with something put right: a ribbon returned, a stray dog given a home, a key turning in a lock, a lost animal brought back, a wallet handed over, a skate found. The last page of every book is the same page — Skadi, alone, smiling — which readers learn to expect.
SET IN REAL PLACES
Book one: Spring, Texas. Book two: Chama, New Mexico. Book three: Red River, New Mexico. Book four: the Valle Vidal. Book five: San Antonio. Book six: Dallas.
Because the settings are real, the books can sit inside a map, a geography unit, or a local-history lesson — and a child who has been to one of those places will find it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Every dog in the series is real. There are four of them, and they are friends before they are anything else.
Skadi is the author's own dog and lives with him in Spring, Texas. Jet, Brandi and Punkin belong to three people he knows, and the four dogs are together more often than not — they camp together, they walk together, and most of the time they are together, they are solving mysteries.
Every case in these books starts from something the four of them have actually done. Photographs of the real dogs sit alongside the illustrations in the back of every book.
A FREE INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES
Meet the Detectives is a free illustrated introduction to all four dogs, written at the same length as a case book. It introduces each detective, explains the breed instinct behind the job they do, and gives a teacher or librarian the whole premise in one sitting.
It is free for classroom and library use. Write to the address below and it will be sent across.
FOR SCHOOL AND LIBRARY ENQUIRIES
Author visits, reading sessions and bulk orders:
