Frances O’Roark Dowell Books in Order
Frances O’Roark Dowell has written 27 books, published between 2000 and 2025. The first book is Dovey Coe (2000) and the newest is A Friendship Album Christmas (2025). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 27
- Published
- 2000–2025
- Pages on record
- 675 in 3 of 27 books
Middle-grade fiction is the core of Frances O'Roark Dowell's work. The American writer debuted with Dovey Coe in 2000, a novel that won an Edgar and the William Allen White Children's Book Award and was translated into Chinese, French and German. Shooting the Moon (2008) earned a Christopher Award and a Boston Globe-Horn Book honor, and Where I'd Like to Be took a VOYA award. Dowell's series are Sam the Man, Phineas L. MacGuire and Secret Language of Girls. The catalogue holds 27 books up to A Friendship Album Christmas (2025).
How many Frances O’Roark Dowell books are there?
Frances O’Roark Dowell has 27 books, released between 2000 and 2025. They include 3 series and 15 titles listed outside any series.
Frances O’Roark Dowell Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 27 Frances O’Roark Dowell books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1Dovey Coe2000 · confirmed 1/42000–1/4
- 2Where I'd Like to Be2003 · confirmed 1/42003–1/4
- 32004–1/4
- 4Chicken Boy2005 · confirmed 1/42005–1/4
- 52006–1/4
- 62007–1/4
- 72008–1/4
- 8Shooting the Moon2008 · confirmed 1/42008–1/4
- 92009–1/4
- 10Falling In2010 · confirmed 1/42010–1/4
- 11Ten Miles Past Normal2011 · confirmed 1/42011–1/4
- 12The Second Life of Abigail Walker2012 · confirmed 1/42012–1/4
- 132013–1/4
- 1420141951/4
- 15Anybody Shining2014 · confirmed 1/42014–1/4
- 162016–1/4
- 17Trouble the Water2016 · confirmed 1/42016–1/4
- 18Birds in the Air2016 · 256 pages · confirmed 1/420162561/4
- 19Margaret Goes Modern2017 · confirmed 1/42017–1/4
- 202017–1/4
- 212018–1/4
- 222018–1/4
- 232019–1/4
- 24The Class2019 · confirmed 1/42019–1/4
- 25How to Build a Story... Or, the Big What If2020 · confirmed 1/42020–1/4
- 26Hazard2022 · 224 pages · confirmed 1/420222241/4
- 27A Friendship Album Christmas2025 · confirmed 1/42025–1/4
Frances O’Roark Dowell books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Sam the Man in order
5 booksPhineas L. MacGuire in order
4 books- 1. Erupts!
- 2. Gets Slimed!
- 3. Blasts Off!
- 4. Gets Cooking!
Secret Language of Girls in order
3 booksStandalone books
15 books15 Frances O’Roark Dowell titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read Frances O’Roark Dowell books in order?
You only need to read Frances O’Roark Dowell books in order within each series: the books listed here span 3 separate series, and each series has its own publication order.
Where to start with Frances O’Roark Dowell
Start with Dovey Coe (2000), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Frances O’Roark Dowell book?
A Friendship Album Christmas (2025) is the newest Frances O’Roark Dowell book released so far.
Is there a new Frances O’Roark Dowell book coming?
No next Frances O’Roark Dowell book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Frances O’Roark Dowell at a glance
- Still publishing
- Frances O’Roark Dowell published a book as recently as 2025.
- Release pace
- Frances O’Roark Dowell books have appeared about one a year on average.
- Length
- 675 pages across the 3 of 27 books with a recorded length, a median of 224 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Frances O’Roark Dowell books, 15 of 27, were published in the 2010s.
What the Frances O’Roark Dowell books are about
2 of the 27 Frances O’Roark Dowell books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: children's fiction is tagged on 2 of 2. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Children's fiction 2 of 2 books
- Afghan War, 2001- 1 of 2 books
- Amputees 1 of 2 books
- Anger 1 of 2 books
- Bullies 1 of 2 books
- Bullying 1 of 2 books
- Cooking 1 of 2 books
- Experiments 1 of 2 books
- Families of military personnel 1 of 2 books
- Fathers and sons 1 of 2 books
- Post-traumatic stress disorder 1 of 2 books
- Psychoanalytic counseling 1 of 2 books