Children: grades 4-6 book series in reading order

by Franklin W. Dixon

by Enid Blyton

by Lois Lowry

by Loree Lough

Franklin W. Dixon is the author name on the Hardy Boys books, and the catalogue lists 473 titles under the Dixon name from 1927 to 2023. The Tower Treasure, The House on the Cliff and The Secret of the Old Mill all date from 1927. Dixon series include Hardy Boys Casefiles, Hardy Boys Adventures, Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers, Hardy Boys: Secret Files and Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Super Mystery, plus the Ted Scott Flying Stories. Undercover Bookworms (2023) is the newest title.

The Saddle Club made Bonnie Bryant's name. Bantam Books published that horse series from October 1988 to November 2001, and this catalogue of 100 titles covers the same span, opening with Horse Crazy (1988) and closing with Best Friends (2001). Bryant, born in New York in 1946, also published as B.B. Hiller. Horses, riding clubs and friendship are the standing subjects, pitched at grades 3 to 5, at a median of 144 pages.

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).

Carolyn Keene is a Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name, the credit on the Nancy Drew mysteries. Mildred Wirt Benson, one of the writers behind the name, used it from 1929 to 1953 and contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books. The catalogue lists 647 Carolyn Keene books, beginning with The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase and The Bungalow Mystery (all 1930) and reaching Vans & Villains (2026). Series include Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Nancy Drew Files, Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, Nancy Drew Diaries, Nancy Drew: Girl Detective and Dana Girls Mystery Stories.

Rhys Bowen is the name Janet Quin-Harkin publishes adult mystery novels under; Quin-Harkin was born in Bath, Somerset, in September 1941. The catalogue gathers 171 books, opening with Peter Penny's Dance (1976) and reaching Vanished in the Crowd (2026), with A Whiff of Scandal dated 2027. Molly Murphy, Her Royal Spyness and Constable Evans are the mystery series listed, alongside teen series carrying the Janet Quin-Harkin byline such as Heartbreak Cafe, Sugar and Spice and The Boyfriend Club. Catalogue subjects run to detective and mystery stories, women private investigators, historical mystery, aristocracy and children's fiction.

R.L. Stine

589 books• 64 series

Robert Lawrence Stine, born October 8, 1943, is an American novelist who writes horror fiction for children. Goosebumps, the series Stine created, sold more than 400 million copies in 35 languages and grew into a franchise of two television series, video games, comics and two feature films. Fear Street, Stine's horror sequence for teenagers, passed 80 million copies and was adapted for film. Stine has been called the Stephen King of children's literature. The listing runs to 590 titles, from How to Be Funny (1978), published as Jovial Bob Stine, to How to Train Your Dummy, scheduled for 2027.

Bill Myers is an American Christian author, film director and film producer, born in Seattle, Washington on September 9, 1953. The animated series McGee and Me! is the work Myers is most noted for. Myers writes across comedy, horror, thriller, fiction and nonfiction. The catalogue holds 132 books, from My Friend William Moved Away (1979) to Commune (2023), with the 1990s as the busiest decade. Series include Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogle, Forbidden Doors, Bloodhounds Inc., TJ and the Time Stumblers and Secret Agent Dingledorf and His Trusty Dog, SPLAT. Catalogue subjects cover Christian life, children's fiction, humorous stories, time travel and spies.

Gertrude Chandler Warner (April 16, 1890 to August 30, 1979) was an American author who wrote mostly for children. Warner wrote the original book of The Boxcar Children, published in 1942, and the next 18 books in the series. Earlier catalogued titles include The House of Delight (1916) and The World in a Barn (1927), and Surprise Island (1949) and The Yellow House Mystery (1952) came after The Boxcar Children. Orphans, brothers and sisters, and mystery stories are among the subjects. The catalogue also carries Boxcar Children lines such as Adventures of Benny and Watch and Boxcar Children Great Adventure under Warner's name.

Isaac Asimov

553 books• 31 series

Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer who also taught biochemistry at Boston University. Hard science fiction is the core of Asimov's reputation, and the Foundation series about a fallen space empire is the most famous work; Asimov ranked with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke as one of the "Big Three" of the genre. The output also covers mysteries, fantasy and popular science, with non-fiction lines such as How Did We Find Out and the Library of the Universe. Asimov wrote or edited more than 500 books. This catalogue opens with the story Marooned Off Vesta (1939) and names Asimov on 400 of the listed books.

Lois Lowry

52 books• 8 series

Lois Lowry, born Lois Ann Hammersberg on March 20, 1937, is an American writer of books for children and young adults. Lowry's work includes The Giver Quartet, Number the Stars, the Anastasia series and Rabble Starkey, and takes on dystopias and difficult themes for young readers. Number the Stars won the Newbery Medal in 1990 and The Giver won it in 1994. Gooney Bird Greene received the 2002 Rhode Island Children's Book Award. Several Lowry books, The Giver among them, have been challenged or banned in some schools. The catalogue holds 52 Lowry books from A Summer to Die (1977) to Building 903 (2026).

Madeleine L'Engle (November 29, 1918 to September 6, 2007) was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. A Wrinkle in Time (1962) earned L'Engle the Newbery Medal, and the American Library Association gave L'Engle its Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1998. The catalogue lists 70 books, beginning with The Small Rain (1945). Series include the Austin Family Chronicles, the Crosswicks Journals, the O'Keefe Family and the Time Quintet. Subjects run from science fiction and space and time to Christian life and meditations.

Marguerite Henry (born Marguerite Breithaupt, 13 April 1902 to 26 November 1997) was an American children's author who wrote fifty-nine books drawn from true stories of horses and other animals. King of the Wind, a 1948 horse book, won Henry the Newbery Medal, and two other Henry books were runners-up. Misty of Chincoteague (1947), one of those runners-up, led to several related titles and the 1961 film Misty. The catalogue lists 34 Henry books from Birds at Home (1942) to Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley (1996), including Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1945). Subjects include ponies, the Chincoteague pony and horse racing.

Brian Jacques

42 books• 7 series

Redwall made Brian Jacques (1939-2011) a fixture of children's fantasy. The English author's 42 catalogued books open with Redwall in 1986 and close with The Rogue Crew in 2011, most of them set in and around the imaginary Redwall Abbey and peopled by mice, badgers, otters and other animals. Jacques also wrote the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series and two short story collections, Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales and The Ribbajack & Other Curious Yarns. The books are pitched at grades 3-5.

G.A. Henty wrote historical adventure stories for young readers. The catalogue holds 109 Henty titles, opening with A Search for a Secret (1867) and closing at The Plague Ship (2002). War, military history and the conduct of life are the recurring subjects, and much of the work sits in England and the wider British past. Early titles include The March to Magdala (1868), Out on the Pampas (1870) and The Young Franc Tireurs (1872).

Jim Kjelgaard wrote for young readers about dogs and the outdoors. Born James Arthur Kjelgaard, he lived from 1910 to 1959 and left 45 catalogued titles published between 1941 and 1980, opening with Forest Patrol (1941) and closing with Rebel Horse (1980). Big Red (1945) names one of the two sequences here, the other collecting his short stories. Snow Dog (1948), A Nose For Trouble (1949), Wild Trek (1950) and Fire-Hunter (1951) follow. Irish setters, trappers, outdoor life, Apache Indians and fathers and sons recur as subjects.

Michael Morpurgo

171 books• 5 series

Sir Michael Morpurgo, born 5 October 1943, is an English author, poet, playwright and librettist best known for children's novels such as War Horse (1982). Morpurgo served as the third Children's Laureate from 2003 to 2005 and is President of BookTrust, a children's reading charity. Recurring themes include outsiders who triumph, survival and bonds with nature, set in places such as the Cornish coast and the First World War trenches. The catalogue holds 171 books from It Never Rained (1974) to Down Burrow Lane (2026), including the Mudpuddle Farm series.

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.

Loree Lough has 102 books catalogued from 1994 to 2022, covering both children's fiction and romance. Subjects include Christian life, American history, the Pilgrims of New Plymouth colony, the American Revolution, slavery, prejudice and the Depression. Pocketful Of Love (1994) is the first listed title, and The Christmas Letter (2022) the newest. Lough's series include American Adventure, Suddenly, Chesapeake, Accidental Blessings, Child to Love, Secrets on Sterling Street, By Way of the Lighthouse and Those Marshall Boys. The median book runs to 144 pages.

Edward Willett, born July 20, 1959, is a US/Canadian writer of speculative fiction whose series include Right to Know, Shards of Excalibur, The Helix War and Worldshapers. Willett has also written as Adam Blade, E. C. Blake and Lee Arthur Chane. After a journalism degree from Harding University, Willett reported for the Weyburn Review in Saskatchewan, became its news editor in 1984 and later worked for the Saskatchewan Science Centre. Willett has served as president of SF Canada. The catalogue lists 58 books from 1995 to 2026, including Soulworm (1997) and titles such as Microsoft Office 2000 Bible (1999).