Color book series in reading order

by David McKee

by Michael Bond

Daisy Meadows is the name on the Rainbow Magic children's books, a fantasy line whose subjects include fairies, goblins, Jack Frost and two girls, Kirsty Tate and Rachel Walker. The catalogue opens in 2003 with colour-fairy titles such as Ruby the Red Fairy, Amber the Orange Fairy and Fern the Green Fairy, and runs to Nur the Vlogger Fairy (2023). Sub-series include the Weather, Jewel, Party, Pet Keeper, Dance, Ocean and Showtime Fairies. Magic Animal Friends appears under the same name.

Pinkalicious anchors Victoria Kann's picture books and early readers, a character whose name mutates across the series: Pinkalicious (2009), Goldilicious (2009), Silverlicious (2011), Pinkalicious and the Pink Pumpkin (2011), Rubylicious (2021). Pink, colours, imagination, food habits and sibling humour supply the subjects across 38 titles, most of them 24 pages. Nothing new has appeared under the Kann name since 2021.

Eric Carle

165 books• 6 series

Eric Carle (25 June 1929 to 23 May 2021) was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a picture book first published in 1969, has sold more than 55 million copies in over 70 languages. Carle illustrated more than 70 children's books and wrote most of them, and sales across the Carle books exceed 170 million copies. Catalogued titles begin with 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo (1968), followed by The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969), Pancakes, Pancakes! (1970), The Tiny Seed (1970) and Do You Want to Be My Friend? (1971). Subjects include board books, counting, color, animals and caterpillars.

Sam Lloyd (Kids Books) makes board books, pop-ups and other movable books for very young children. The series Puppet Pop-Ups, Mr. Pusskins, Shape Sorters, Nurse Mousey and Whoops-a-Daisy World work through colours, animals, monsters and emotions. 46 catalogued titles run from Naughty Nancy and the Nurse Mousey books in 2001 to Alight: A Story of Fire and Nature in 2023. A median length of 15 pages marks these as books for the youngest readers.

Drew Daywalt, born January 5, 1970, is an American author and filmmaker. The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) and its sequel The Day the Crayons Came Home (2015), picture books illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, are Daywalt's best-known work. Daywalt has also written scripts for American television and Hollywood studios and made short horror films for the internet. The catalogue lists 38 books from 2013 to 2026, with Happy Birthday from the Crayons due in 2027; series are Crayons, Monkey & Cake and No Sam!.

Michael Bond, an English author born on 13 January 1926 who died on 27 June 2017, is best known for children's books about Paddington Bear. Sales of the Paddington books passed 35 million worldwide, and the characters moved into animated television, a film series and a stage musical. The catalogue records 217 books under the name, including A Bear Called Paddington, More About Paddington (1959) and Paddington Helps Out (1960). Olga Da Polga, Monsieur Pamplemousse, Parsley and Mouse Called Thursday are further series, and guinea pigs and private investigators appear among the subjects.

Julia Donaldson

349 books• 14 series

Dame Julia Donaldson, born Julia Catherine Shields on 16 September 1948, is a British writer and playwright who served as Children's Laureate from 2011 to 2013. Rhyming stories for children made Donaldson's name, above all those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, such as The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, Stick Man and Superworm. Donaldson first wrote songs for children's television; the lyrics of A Squash and a Squeeze became a picture book in 1993, and books have been the focus since. The catalogue carries 349 entries, from Tim's Bad Mood and Other Stories (1970) to The Tooth Fairy and the Crocodile (2026), including Tales from Acorn Wood, Princess Mirror-Belle and Zog.

Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 - November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children's books, among them The Runaway Bunny (1942) and Goodnight Moon (1947), both with illustrations by Clement Hurd. Brown has been called the laureate of the nursery. Brown also published as Golden MacDonald for Doubleday, as Timothy Hay for Harper & Brothers, and, with Edith Thacher Hurd, as Juniper Sage for William R. Scott. The catalogue lists 166 books, opening with When the Wind Blew (1937), then I Like Bugs and The Steam Roller (1938). Stories in rhyme, rabbits, bedtime and sound recur in the subjects.

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.

Leo Lionni

48 books• 1 series

Leo Lionni wrote and illustrated picture books for children. Born in the Netherlands, Lionni worked as an advertising art director and then at Fortune magazine in the United States before turning to children's books in the 1960s. The 48 titles catalogued span 1948 to 2021 at a median of 32 pages, and take in Inch by Inch (1960), Swimmy (1963) and Frederick (1967); Inch by Inch won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. Mice, frogs, birds, colour and friendship recur across the list.

William Joyce

50 books• 6 series

William Joyce, born in 1957, is an American writer, illustrator and filmmaker who has produced more than 50 children's books, translated into over 40 languages. Rolie Polie Olie, the Guardians of Childhood and Dinosaur Bob are his main series, working with robots, dogs, adventure and the contest of good and evil, often in rhyme. Joyce started in film as a concept artist on Toy Story (1995) and took credits on A Bug's Life (1998) and Robots (2005); his A Day with Wilbur Robinson (1988) became the Disney film Meet the Robinsons (2007). The catalogue runs from William Joyce's Mother Goose (1984) to Scarecrow and the Nightingale (2020), at a median of 40 pages a book.

Jaclyn Moriarty is an Australian novelist known above all for young adult fiction. Moriarty has taken a Davitt Award, and an Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction. The Ashbury/Brookfield books start at Feeling Sorry for Celia (2000) and continue through The Year of Secret Assignments (2003), The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie (2006), Dreaming of Amelia (2009) and The Ghosts of Ashbury High (2009). The Colours of Madeleine trilogy follows from A Corner of White (2012), and the catalogue holds 19 books reaching 2026.

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.

David McKee

119 books• 6 series

Elmer, Mr. Benn and King Rollo are among the series created by David McKee (1935–2022), a British writer and illustrator of children's books and animations. McKee was the UK nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006, in recognition of the illustration work. The catalogue lists 119 titles from Mark And The Monocycle (1968) to Elmer Opposites (2020), including 123456789 Benn (1970), Two Admirals (1977) and the Melric books. Subjects include elephants, monsters, magic, and kings and queens.

Barbara Jean Hicks writes picture books and adult fiction, and works as a storyteller, speaker and educator. Eight picture books carry the Hicks name, among them Once Upon a Parsnip, Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli, A Sister More Like Me and The Secret Life of Walter Kitty. Hicks has taught from preschool to community college and served as author-in-residence and parent educator in an urban elementary school. The catalogue lists 14 books, from Coming Home (1996) to Once Upon a Parsnip (2016), including Snow Swan (1997), An Unlikely Prince (1998), Jitterbug Jam (2004) and I Like Colors (2006). Catalogue subjects record picture books, stories in rhyme, colour and food habits.