Adolescence book series in reading order

by Lisa Greenwald

Katherine Applegate

228 books• 20 series

Katherine Applegate, born October 9, 1956, and sometimes published as K. A. Applegate, is an American author of children's and young adult fiction. Animorphs, Remnants and Everworld are the series most tied to Applegate, and The One and Only Ivan (2012) won the 2013 Newbery Medal. Applegate received the Publishers Weekly Best New Children's Book Series Award in 1997. The catalogue lists 228 books, from Welcome to Junior High! (1990) to The Littlest Elephant (2026), including Girl Talk, Making Out and Roscoe Riley Rules.

Francine Pascal (née Rubin, 1932–2024) was an American author whose name is tied to the Sweet Valley books for young adults. Sweet Valley High anchored that collection, was adapted for television, and branched into spin-offs such as The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. The catalogue opens with Hangin' Out with Cici (1977) and also carries the Fearless series. Subjects include twins, sisters, high schools, friendship and dating. Most Sweet Valley books came out in the 1980s and 1990s, and several titles were re-released decades later.

Lisa Greenwald writes for middle-grade readers about friendship, school and adolescence. My Life in Pink & Green (2009) opens 29 catalogued books that reach You'll Find It All Still Here (2025). Six series divide the list: Pink & Green, TBH, Friendship List, Seagate Summers, Ellie's Deli and Fortune Tellers. Bullying, secrets, best friends, early dating and family life supply the material.

P.C. Cast, born Phyllis Christine Cast on April 30, 1960, is an American romance and fantasy author. Cast writes the House of Night series, which is edited by Cast's daughter Kristin Cast, as well as the Goddess Summoning and Partholon series. The catalogue lists 59 books from Divine by Mistake (2001) to Queen of Shadow (2026), including Goddess of the Sea (2003) and Betrayed (2007). Subjects include vampires, goddesses, magic, time travel and Oklahoma. Other listings include Tales Of A New World, Sisters Of Salem and Moonstruck, and Cast is still publishing.

Erin Watt has 9 catalogued books, all published between 2016 and 2018. Five of them form a connected run: Paper Princess (2016), Broken Prince (2016), Twisted Palace (2016), Fallen Heir (2017) and Cracked Kingdom (2018). When It's Real (2017) and One Small Thing (2018) stand apart from it. High school students, dating, impostors and murder supply the subjects. No title has been catalogued since 2018.

Beverly Cleary

49 books• 12 series

Beverly Cleary (born Beverly Atlee Bunn; April 12, 1916 to March 25, 2021) was an American author of children's and young adult fiction. Henry Huggins (1950) was the first book, and Ramona Quimby, Beezus Quimby, Henry Huggins with the dog Ribsy, and Ralph S. Mouse became the recurring characters. Cleary's books have sold 91 million copies worldwide. The catalogue records 49 books through 2013, grouped into series such as Henry Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse and Ellen & Otis, with humour, family life, school and pets among the subjects.

Maeve Binchy

47 books• 6 series

Irish writer Maeve Binchy was born on 28 May 1939 and died on 30 July 2012. Binchy worked as a novelist, playwright, columnist and speaker, and wrote short stories. Binchy's novels portray small-town Irish life with sympathy and humour, often closing on a surprise ending. Translations reached 37 languages and sales passed 40 million copies. In the US, Binchy's work was selected for Oprah's Book Club and reached The New York Times Best Seller list. The catalogue lists 47 titles from Central Line (1978) to Maeve Binchy's Treasury (2021), including Light a Penny Candle (1982) and Circle of Friends (1990).

Christopher Pike is the pseudonym of Kevin Christopher McFadden, an American author born on November 12, 1955. Pike writes mystery-thrillers, supernatural horror and children's fiction, mostly for young adults, with some adult fiction too. The catalogue lists 86 books from Getting Even and Slumber Party (both 1985) to Strange Girl (2015), with Chain Letter (1986), The Tachyon Web (1986) and Spellbound (1988) among the early titles. Series include Spooksville, Last Vampire, Remember Me, Final Friends, Alosha, Chain Letter and Witch World, and vampires, monsters and witches all appear among the subjects.

Jane Gardam wrote for children and for adults and worked as a literary critic, with reviews in The Spectator and The Telegraph and writing for BBC Radio. Gardam took the Whitbread Award twice, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2005 and appointed OBE in the 2009 New Year Honours. Thirty-five books are catalogued between A Few Fair Days (1971) and The Stories of Jane Gardam (2014), with Old Filth the one series listed. England, family life, adolescence and girls recur as subjects.

Magdalen Nabb (1947-2007) was a British author who wrote two very different sets of books. The Marshal Guarnaccia mysteries are police novels set in Italy, from Death of an Englishman and Death of a Dutchman (1981) through Death in Springtime (1983), The Marshal and the Murderer (1987) and on to Vita Nuova (2008). Josie Smith is a series for children, starting in 1989. Twenty-seven titles are catalogued, most of them short at around 192 pages.

Kate Cann is an English author of fiction, born in 1954. Teenagers, love, dating, self-esteem, bullying and sexual ethics supply the subject matter across 24 catalogued books published between 1997 and 2012. In the Deep End / Ready? (1997) opens the run and Witch Crag (2012) closes it. Art & Coll, the Hard Cash Trilogy, Crow Girl and Rayne are the four series listed under Cann's name. The 2000s are the busiest decade, and the median recorded length is 329 pages.

Adrian Mole, the teenage diarist, is Sue Townsend's creation. Townsend (1946-2014) was an English humorist whose work took in novels, plays and journalism. Writing privately from age 14, Townsend made a name in theatre first, and Adrian Mole debuted on radio. In the 1980s the Mole books outsold every other work of fiction in Britain, and the series grew to 9 diary-form books, starting with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 (1982). The Queen and I (1992) began a second series.

Cindy Callaghan, born around 1976, is an American author of children's books, including middle-grade novels. The catalogue holds 14 of Callaghan's books, dated 2010 to 2022. Just Add Magic (2010) was the debut and became an Amazon television series under the same name. Callaghan's series are Just Add Magic and Lost in Europe. Other titles include Lost in London, Lost in Paris and Lost in Rome. My Big Heart-Shaped Fail (2022) is the newest book.