Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whales on Stilts! | 2005 | M.T. Anderson | Buy |
| 2 | The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen | 2006 | M.T. Anderson | Buy |
| 3 | Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware | 2007 | M.T. Anderson | Buy |
| 4 | Agent Q, or The Smell of Danger! | 2009 | M.T. Anderson | Buy |
| 5 | Zombie Mommy | 2011 | M.T. Anderson | Buy |
| 6 | He Laughed with His Other Mouths | 2014 | M.T. Anderson | Buy |
The Pals in Peril series is M.T. Anderson at his most gleefully ridiculous. Starting with Whales on Stilts! (2005), the six books throw a group of friends into increasingly absurd adventures involving jasper dashes, linoleum lederhosen, zombie mommies, and laughing with other mouths. The titles alone signal the tone: this is comedy for kids who appreciate the weird.
Anderson parodies pulp adventure fiction while creating genuinely funny stories with real stakes buried under layers of silliness. The series ran from 2005 to 2014, and the books work both as straightforward adventures and as send-ups of the genre.