Behavior book series in reading order

by Jack Gantos

by Betty MacDonald

by Lincoln Peirce

by Laurie Friedman

by Jacqueline Davies

by Jonathan London

by Ian Falconer

by Steven Kellogg

by Marcia Thornton Jones

by Marsha Hubler

by James Patterson

Nancy Krulik writes for children, and the catalogue lists Grades 1-3 as the reading level. Series credited to Krulik include Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo, How I Survived Middle School, Magic Bone, Princess Pulverizer and Project Droid, and George Brown, Class Clown appears among the characters. Subjects range across magic, schools, friendship, dogs, robots and humorous stories. The most recent listed book is Fangs for Having Us! (2021), and the catalogue marks the output as dormant.

Ann M. Martin

446 books• 24 series

Ann Matthews Martin, born August 12, 1955, is an American writer of children's and young adult fiction and a Smith College graduate. The Baby-Sitters Club, first published in 1986, is the series Martin is known best for, and Martin remains involved with the series and its spin-offs. The catalogue lists 446 books, beginning with Inside Out and Bummer Summer in 1983. Related lines include Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries, California Diaries, Kids in Ms. Colman's Class, Main Street and Doll People. Jessi Ramsey, Pet-sitter: A Graphic Novel (2025) is the newest listed title.

Jan and Stan Berenstain wrote picture books about the Berenstain Bears. The run begins with The Big Honey Hunt (1962) and reaches 400 titles by The Berenstain Bears: Father's Day Blessings (2018). Family life, school, brothers and sisters, scouting, Christmas and Christian life supply the recurring subjects, and many of the books are told in rhyme. A median length of 32 pages places them with early readers. Publication peaked in the 1990s and the catalogue is likely complete.

Enid Blyton

957 books• 42 series

Enid Blyton (11 August 1897 to 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer and one of the best-selling authors of children's literature, with more than 600 million copies sold and translations into ninety languages. Blyton wrote on education, natural history, fantasy, mystery and biblical stories. Noddy, the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, the Five Find-Outers and Malory Towers are the best-remembered Blyton books, and St Clare's, Mary Mouse and Toyland Stories are also listed. The catalogue opens with The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies (1924), and The Naughtiest Girl in the School (1930) and The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (1937) follow. Titles dated after Blyton's death also appear, up to Stories of Wonders and Wishes (2023).

Jack Gantos is an American children's author, born in 1951, known for two creations. Rotten Ralph is a cat who starred in twenty picture books between 1976 and 2014, illustrated by Nicole Rubel; Joey Pigza is a boy with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, featured in five novels between 1998 and 2014. Gantos took the 2012 Newbery Medal for Dead End in Norvelt. The catalogue records 50 titles from Rotten Ralph (1975) onward, written for grades 3 to 5, with a median length of 48 pages.

Lincoln Peirce

77 books• 6 series

Lincoln Peirce created the Big Nate comic strip and writes and illustrates the Big Nate novels for young readers. Born in 1963, Peirce is an American cartoonist and animator who has written animated shorts for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and created the animated Big Nate series that premiered on Paramount+. Eighty-two titles are catalogued from 2001 to Code Red! (2026), covering the graphic novels, activity books and the Max and the Midknights series. Middle school, friendship and humour are the recurring subjects.

Jane Yolen

237 books• 22 series

Jane Yolen (Jane Hyatt Yolen, February 11, 1939 to June 11, 2026) was an American author of fantasy, science fiction and children's books. The Devil's Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella, is the best-known Yolen work, and Owl Moon and The Emperor and the Kite are among the others. The short works Sister Emily's Lightship and Lost Girls both won Nebula Awards. The catalogue counts 237 books from The Witch Who Wasn't (1964) to Daddy Plays a Mean Guitar (2026). Series include Commander Toad, How Do Dinosaurs...?, Pit Dragons, the Young Merlin Trilogy, Books of the Great Alta and Tartan Magic. Yolen worked as an editor, collaborated most often with Adam Stemple, and in 2012 became the first woman to give the Andrew Lang lecture.

Betty MacDonald

12 books• 2 series

Betty MacDonald, born Anne Elizabeth Campbell Bard on March 26, 1907, was an American author of humorous autobiographical books who died on February 7, 1958. The Egg and I (1945) is MacDonald's best known book, and MacDonald also wrote the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle children's series. MacDonald is associated with the Pacific Northwest and Washington. Other titles include The Plague and I (1948), Onions in the Stew (1955) and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm (1954).

Jon Katz

36 books• 1 series

Dogs and farm life fill the later part of Jon Katz's catalogue; crime fiction fills the earlier. Katz, born in 1947, is an American journalist and photographer who wrote for HotWired, Slashdot and Slate, and whose first books include the Suburban Detective novels and the character Kit Deleeuw. Writing on geek subculture followed, then a long sequence on the relationship between people and animals, closing with Gus's Year in 2020. Thirty-six titles in all.

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

Marc Brown

47 books• 1 series

Marc Brown, born 25 November 1946, is an American children's author and illustrator who writes and draws the Arthur books. The Arthur series became an animated television show broadcast on PBS Kids. The catalogue lists 47 books by Marc Brown between 1996 and 2009, starting with Arthur's Reading Race (1996) and ending with Arthur's Reading Trick (2009). Arthur, a fictitious aardvark, heads the subject records, alongside schools, friendship, brothers and sisters, and Spanish language editions.

Biologist Bernd Heinrich, born in 1940 in Bad Polzin, Germany, is professor emeritus at the University of Vermont. Heinrich's research on insect physiology and on bird behavior informs most of his 23 books, which examine how animals and plants adapt to their environments; other Heinrich books offer personal reflections on nature. Bumblebee Economics (1979) is the first. Ravens in Winter (1989), A Year in the Maine Woods (1994) and Mind of the Raven (1999) are later titles, and Racing the Clock (2021) is the latest.

Jacqueline Davies moved six times before fifth grade and wrote her first illustrated book, The Sad Shape, in third grade; it was never published. Davies writes for readers in grades 3 to 5, and brothers and sisters, school and humour are frequent subjects. Her 20 books start with Where the Ground Meets the Sky (2002), and The Lemonade War (2007), The Lemonade Crime, The Bell Bandit and The Candy Smash came later. Her series are Lemonade War and Sydney and Taylor. Davies has three grown children and splits her time between a town near Boston and a cabin on the Maine coast.

Julie Gardner Berry, known as Julie Berry, is an American author of books for children and young adults, born on September 3, 1974, and the winner of several national book awards. The catalogue lists 19 books from The Amaranth Enchantment (2009) to If Looks Could Kill (2025). Series include Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys and Wishes and Wellingtons. All the Truth That's in Me (2013) and The Passion of Dolssa (2016) also appear in the list.

Meg Cabot

102 books• 20 series

Meggin Patricia Cabot, born February 1, 1967, is an American novelist of young adult and adult fiction. Meg Cabot wrote The Princess Diaries, a young adult series Walt Disney Pictures adapted into two feature films. Awards include the ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers and the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award. The catalogue lists 102 books from Where Roses Grow Wild (1998) to Kissing Cowboys (2026), including titles as Patricia Cabot and Jenny Carroll. Other series include Mediator, Heather Wells, Allie Finkle's Rules For Girls, Airhead and Little Bridge Island.

Sy Montgomery

43 books• 3 series

Sy Montgomery, born February 7, 1958, is an American naturalist, author and scriptwriter writing for both children and adults. The catalogue lists 43 books, beginning in 1991 with Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas and The Curious Naturalist. Later titles include The Snake Scientist (1999), Journey of the Pink Dolphins (2000), The Tarantula Scientist (2004) and The Good Good Pig (2006). Oceanic Manta Adventure: Saving the Angels of the Sea (2026) is the newest. Animal behaviour, zoology, birds, apes and women primatologists are recorded subjects.

Mac Barnett

64 books• 7 series

Mac Barnett is an American children's book writer, born August 23, 1982, best known for advocating for picture books and serving as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature for 2025-26. Since 2009 Barnett has published more than seventy works, over fifty of them picture books, along with graphic novels, essays and short stories. The catalogue counts 64 books from Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem (2009) to Rumpelstiltskin (2026), including Guess Again! (2009), The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (2009), Mustache! (2011) and Chloe and the Lion (2012). Series are A Jack Book, Mac B., Kid Spy, First Cat in Space, Terrible Two, Brixton Brothers, Shapes Trilogy and Oh No!. Subjects name humorous stories, mysteries, friendship and schools.

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.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

131 books• 11 series

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, born in 1933, wrote 131 catalogued books for children and young adults across half a century. Shiloh, a quartet of children's novels, won the Newbery Medal in 1992, and the Alice McKinley series became one of the most frequently challenged sets of books of the early 21st century. The Boy/Girl Battle, Bessledorf Mysteries, Witch Saga, Cat Pack and Roxie and the Hooligans fill out the list, which runs from To Make a Wee Moon (1969) to Roxie and the Hooligans at Buzzard's Roost (2018). Family life, schools, friendship and siblings are the constant subjects, at a median of 154 pages.

Laurie Friedman writes children's fiction, with 159 books catalogued from A Big Bed for Jed (2002) to Duck and Dog Bake a Pie (2022). Mallory McDonald is a recurring character, and titles include Back to School, Mallory (2004), Mallory vs. Max (2004) and Happy Birthday, Mallory! (2005). The Mostly Miserable Life of April Sinclair also appears in the listing. Friedman's series include Mallory McDonald, Ruby Valentine, Spots and Stripes, Chef Kate, Beans, Moose and Silly Milly. Subjects include friendship, family life, school, diaries, dating and stories in rhyme. The median book runs to 159 pages.

Jonathan London has 141 catalogued books dating from 1992 to 2022, the Froggy series among them. Froggy Gets Dressed (1992) is the earliest title, alongside The Lion Who Had Asthma and Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back from the same year. Other series include Duck and Hippo, Aaron's Wilderness, Shawn and Keeper and Brown Bear. Subjects include picture books, stories in rhyme, children's poetry, animals, wolves and imagination. Here Comes Truck Driver Hippo (2022) is the most recent title.

Marcia Thornton Jones, born July 15, 1958, is an American writer of children's books and the author or co-author of more than 135 elementary chapter books, picture books and mid-grade novels. Named among them is The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids; other work was co-written with Debbie Dadey, who carries a credit on 7 of the 125 catalogued titles. The listing opens with Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots (1990) and ends with Writing for Kids (2019). Further series include Ghostville Elementary, Bailey City Monsters, Barkley's School for Dogs and Keyholders. The books are short, at a median of 75 pages, and subjects name monsters, ghosts, teachers and humorous stories.

Steven Kellogg is an American author and illustrator of children's books, born in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1941. The catalogue lists 94 titles, including the Pinkerton books, the Jimmy's Boa series and A Tall Tale, at a median 32 pages each. Animals, friendship, folklore, dogs and fairy tales supply the recurring subjects. The University of Findlay in Ohio gave Kellogg an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 2011, and his original illustrations went to the Mazza Museum there.

Wanda Coven writes children's fiction, with 62 books catalogued from 2012 to 2026. Heidi Heckelbeck Has a Secret (2012) opens the list, alongside Heidi Heckelbeck Casts a Spell, Heidi Heckelbeck Gets Glasses and Heidi Heckelbeck and the Cookie Contest from the same year. The newest title is Henry Heckelbeck at the Mega Magic Mart (2026). Subjects include witches, magic, schools, best friends, pets and family life. Coven is still publishing.