3 Childhood and youth book series and 20 authors, each with every book in publication order. A series or author is listed when at least two of its books are tagged Childhood and youth in Open Library, or one book when it has three books or fewer. Series and authors with the most books tagged Childhood and youth come first.
181 books 17 series
Survival and outdoor adventure run through Gary Paulsen's writing for young readers. The catalogue holds 181 books, from Some Birds Don't Fly (1968) to Northwind (2022), at a median length of 105 pages. Brian Robeson, Francis Tucket, Duncan Culpepper, Murphy and the World of Adventure books head the series lines, with non-fiction and picture books alongside. No new Paulsen title has appeared since 2022.
51 books 1 series
Jimmy Carter (1924-2024) served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, and wrote 51 books. Carter's subjects cover his own childhood and career, American politics and government, peace negotiation, the Arab-Israeli conflict and Christian faith. The catalogue opens with Why Not the Best?: The First Fifty Years (1975), two years before he took office, and takes in Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (1982) and The Blood of Abraham: Insights into the Middle East (1986). Later titles turn to the Bible and devotional writing, the most recent dated 2020. Books median 224 pages, and the 2000s were Carter's most productive decade.
159 books 21 series
Guardians of Ga'Hoole is one of the series by Kathryn Lasky, an American children's writer born June 24, 1944, who writes for adults as Kathryn Lasky Knight and E. L. Swann. Lasky's children's work also includes Dear America and The Royal Diaries books, Wolves of the Beyond, Sugaring Time and The Night Journey, and honours include a Newbery Honor, the National Jewish Book Award and the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature. The catalogue holds 159 books from I Have Four Names for My Grandfather (1976) to Sacred Light (2026), including Tugboats Never Sleep (1977), The Weaver's Gift (1980) and Beyond the Divide (1983). Horses Of The Dawn, Bears Of The Ice and Camp Princess are further series, and subjects name owls, wolves, diaries and Jews.
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.
89 books 2 series
Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British writer of children's books and short stories, and also a poet, screenwriter and wartime fighter ace. Born in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents, Dahl lived mostly in England and served in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, first as a fighter pilot and then as an intelligence officer. The catalogue lists 89 titles from The Gremlins (1943) to Marvelously Revolting Recipes (2024), among them Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (1946), Kiss Kiss (1959), James and the Giant Peach (1961) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964). Dahl's books have sold more than 300 million copies.
11 books 2 series
Dave Pelzer writes memoir and self-help out of a childhood of abuse and foster care. A Child Called: One Child's Courage to Survive (1995) opens the catalogue, followed by The Lost Boy (1997) and A Man Named Dave (1999); Help Yourself (2000), The Privilege of Youth (2004) and Moving Forward (2008) turn to advice. Eleven titles are catalogued, the last being Return to the River, and the catalogue is dormant.
13 books
Rick Bragg's 13 catalogued books run from All Over But the Shoutin' (1997) to The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People, Lost and Found (2021). Bragg writes nonfiction about the American South: memoir, biography, reported essays and the social history of working-class white families. Ava's Man (2001), The Prince of Frogtown (2008), The Most They Ever Had (2009) and Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story (2014) fall inside that run. Bragg took a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for his journalism at The New York Times, and his books return often to his own family in Alabama. Nothing new has been catalogued since 2021.
198 books 23 series
Dan Gutman is an American writer of mainly children's fiction, born in 1955. The best-known lines are the My Weird School books, The Genius Files and the Baseball Card Adventures, which began with Honus & Me. The catalogue holds 198 books from It Ain't Cheating If You Don't Get Caught (1990) to Mrs. Towne Is a Clown! (2026), including early baseball titles such as Baseball Babylon (1992). Subjects include schools, teachers, baseball, time travel and humorous stories.
14 books 2 series
M.M. Kaye was a British writer, born in 1908 and died in 2004, and The Far Pavilions (1978) is her most famous book. The Death In... mysteries account for much of the catalogue, each named for a place: Kashmir (1953), Berlin (1955), Cyprus (1956), Kenya (1958), Zanzibar (1959) and the Andamans (1960). The Share of Summer volumes sit alongside them, with biography, childhood and women authors among their subject headings. India and British social life recur across the run. Fourteen books are catalogued, spanning 1953 to 2025.
20 books 2 series
Homer Hickam is an American author, a Vietnam War veteran and a former NASA engineer who trained the first Japanese astronauts. His memoir Rocket Boys (1998), also published as October Sky, reached the New York Times bestseller list and became the 1999 film October Sky; The Coalwood Way (2000) and Sky of Stone (2001) continue that autobiographical line. The Second World War, coal miners and aerospace engineers run through the subject headings, and Josh Thurlow is the one catalogued series. Twenty titles are catalogued, published between 1989 and 2021, from Torpedo Junction (1989) to Don't Blow Yourself Up (2021). Hickam was born in 1943.
229 books 17 series
Cynthia Rylant, born Cynthia Smith on June 6, 1954, is an American author and librarian who has written more than 100 children's books across picture books, short stories, novels, nonfiction and poetry. Missing May took the 1993 Newbery Medal, A Fine White Dust was a 1987 Newbery Honor book, and two further titles are Caldecott Honor Books. The catalogue records 229 books from When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982) onward, with series including Henry and Mudge, Mr. Putter & Tabby, Poppleton and the Lighthouse Family.
178 books 15 series
Jacqueline Wilson, born Jacqueline Aitken on 17 December 1945, is an English novelist who writes for children. Adoption, abuse and divorce are among the realistic topics the novels take on. Wilson made a debut in 1969 and has passed 100 books; this catalogue lists 178, the earliest dated entry being Hide And Seek (1972) and the latest The Seaside Sleepover (2025). Tracy Beaker, Hetty Feather, Girls, Sleepovers and Stevie Day are among the series. Friendship, sisters, family life and schools appear in the subject records.
10 books 2 series
Mary Karr is an American poet, essayist and memoirist from East Texas, and the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracuse University. The Liars' Club (1995) is her best known book, a bestselling memoir, followed by Cherry (2000) and Lit (2009). Poetry runs alongside the prose: Abacus (1987), The Devil's Tour (1993), Viper Rum (1998), Sinners Welcome (2006) and Tropic of Squalor (2018). The Art of Memoir (2015) completes ten catalogued titles.
Ranked by how many series and authors they share with Childhood and youth.