Immigrants book series in reading order

by Kelly Yang

Kelly Yang, born August 29, 1984, is an Asian American writer known mainly for novels for children. Yang's first novel, Front Desk (2018), won the 2018 Parents' Choice Gold Medal for Fiction and the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and Yang has since written fiction for young adults and adults as well. The catalogue holds 14 books from Front Desk to The Take (2026), including Parachutes (2020), Three Keys (2020), New from Here (2022) and Finally Seen (2023). Front Desk and Finally Seen are the two series listed, and subjects include immigrant families, motels and self-confidence.

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.

Sir William Golding (1911-1993) was a British novelist, playwright and poet. Lord of the Flies (1954), his debut, is the book he is known for, and twelve further volumes of fiction appeared in his lifetime. Rites of Passage took the Booker Prize in 1980 and opened the sea trilogy To the Ends of the Earth; the Nobel Prize in Literature followed in 1983 and a knighthood in 1988. Golding was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and The Times placed him third among the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Eighteen catalogued titles close with The Double Tongue (1995).

James A. Michener

50 books• 1 series

James A. Michener (February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American writer of more than 40 books, most of them long family sagas tracing many generations in a single geographic setting, with detailed history woven in. Tales of the South Pacific and Return to Paradise, both from 1947, are the earliest listed titles, followed by The Fires of Spring (1949), Sayonara (1953), The Bridges at Toko-ri (1953) and Hawaii (1959). Many of Michener's books were bestsellers and Book of the Month Club picks, and the research behind them was noted for its thoroughness. Travel, civilization and the Korean War feature in the subjects.

Susan Meissner writes historical and psychological fiction about women: sisters, friendships, immigrants and single women. Twenty-five catalogued books run from Why the Sky Is Blue (2004) to A Map to Paradise (2025), with the Rachael Flynn mysteries and a children's line among them. The median book runs 315 pages, and Meissner remains actively publishing.

Mario Puzo

15 books• 1 series

Organised crime is Mario Puzo's subject. The Godfather (1969) sits in the middle of a catalogue of 15 books that starts with The Dark Arena (1955) and takes in The Fortunate Pilgrim (1965), Fools Die (1978), The Sicilian (1984) and The Fourth K (1990). Mafia families, Italian American immigrants and gambling run through the subjects, and nothing later than 2018 is catalogued.

Avi is the pen name of Edward Irving Wortis, an American author of children's and young adult books born December 23, 1937. Avi won the 2003 Newbery Medal for Crispin: The Cross of Lead and was a Newbery runner-up in 1991 and 1992. The catalogue records 87 books from Things That Sometimes Happen (1970) to The Road From Nowhere (2026), and Rat Race is set for 2027. Series include Crispin, Dimwood Forest and Beyond the Western Sea. Ghosts, animals, adventure and mysteries appear among the subjects.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

16 books• 2 series

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian writer of fiction, nonfiction and lectures, recognised as a central figure in postcolonial feminist literature. Born into an Igbo family in Enugu, Adichie studied medicine at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for a year and a half, then moved to the United States at 19 to attend Drexel University, later studying at Eastern Connecticut State, Johns Hopkins and Yale. Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), Americanah (2013) and We Should All Be Feminists (2014) are listed works.

Thomas Keneally

66 books• 4 series

Thomas Keneally, born 7 October 1935, is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist and actor. Schindler's Ark, a historical novel about Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, won the 1982 Booker Prize and became the basis for Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List. The catalogue holds 66 titles, including Bring Larks And Heroes (1967), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) and Gossip from the Forest (1975), plus the Monsarrat Mystery series. Subjects include Australia, Aboriginal Australians, penal colonies and both world wars.