Libraries book series in reading order

by Dori Hillestad Butler

by Chris Grabenstein

Rachel Caine

63 books• 11 series

Rachel Caine was the pen name of Roxanne Longstreet Conrad (April 27, 1962 to November 1, 2020), an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, suspense and horror. The catalogue lists 63 books under the Caine name, starting with The Undead (1993) and Cold Kiss (1995). Series include Weather Warden, Outcast Season, Morganville Vampires, Stillhouse Lake, Great Library, Red Letter Days and Revivalist. Subjects on file include vampires, weather control, jinn and university towns.

Chris Grabenstein

54 books• 14 series

Chris Grabenstein is an American author who writes for adults and for children, the children's books often with collaborator James Patterson. Grabenstein's first novel, Tilt-a-Whirl, appeared in 2005; the John Ceepak mysteries are the police-procedural strand, set in New Jersey. On the children's side sit Mr. Lemoncello's Library, Welcome to Wonderland, the Haunted Mystery books, Dog Squad and The Smartest Kid In The Universe. Fifty-seven books are catalogued through 2026, the newest being Mr. Lemoncello's Wondermous Christmas Gift.

Django Wexler writes fantasy across age ranges. The Shadow Campaigns (2013–2018) is a flintlock fantasy built on soldiers and imaginary wars; the Forbidden Library is a middle-grade series set around a library; Dark Lord Davi runs a comic time loop. Wells of Sorcery, Burningblade & Silvereye, John Golden, Spelljammer and Ikoria fill out 31 catalogued titles, from Memories of Empire (2005) to The Only Way Out Is Up (2026). Wexler lives near Seattle, Washington.

Dori Hillestad Butler is an American children's author, born in Fairmont, Minnesota in 1965, who has also written magazine stories, plays and educational material. Her first book, The Great Tooth Fairy Rip-Off, appeared in 1997, and the catalogue now holds 55 titles through to Rabbit Rabbit (2025). Series include Haunted Library, King & Kayla, Buddy Files, Dear Beast and Treasure Troop. The Truth about Truman School (2008) addresses cyber bullying, and My Mom's Having a Baby reached the American Library Association's 2011 list of most challenged books. Books run to a median 115 pages.

V.E. Schwab

49 books• 11 series

V.E. Schwab, born Victoria Elizabeth Schwab on July 7, 1987, is an American writer. Schwab is known for the 2013 novel Vicious, the Shades of Magic series and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, a nominee for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. Children's and young adult books appear under the name Victoria Schwab. The catalogue runs to 49 books from The Near Witch (2011) to Victorious (2026), with series including Archived, Monsters of Verity and Cassidy Blake. Schwab also created First Kill, a supernatural teen drama adapted from a short story in the 2020 anthology Vampires Never Get Old.

Eoin Colfer

59 books• 18 series

Eoin Colfer, born 14 May 1965, is an Irish children's writer and a former primary school teacher, best known for the eleven Artemis Fowl fantasy novels. By 2013 the Artemis Fowl books had sold more than 21 million copies in 44 languages, and in a 2010 public poll readers chose Artemis Fowl as their favourite Puffin Books title. The novel Artemis Fowl (2001) was followed by The Arctic Incident (2002) and The Eternity Code (2003). Other series include the Fowl Twins, W.A.R.P., Benny Shaw and Plugged, with Benny and Omar (1998) among the early titles and Deerheart (2026) the newest. The listing also credits The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1996) to Colfer.

Alyssa Satin Capucilli and many others is a shared byline covering 120 early-reader books published between 2002 and 2026, from Whose Hat Is It? to Fox Catches a Wave. Volumes are very short, with a median of 32 pages, and are written for children learning to read alone. Biscuit the puppy and Mittens the cat anchor much of the list, and the stories turn on animals, friendship and small daily outings. New titles keep arriving.

D.J. MacHale

39 books• 10 series

Donald James MacHale, born March 11, 1956, is an American writer, director and executive producer. Television work includes Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Flight 29 Down and Seasonal Differences; in print, MacHale wrote the young adult series Pendragon and Morpheus Road. The catalogue holds 39 books from East of the Sun, West of the Moon (1991) to The Paper Trail (2025), with titles such as The Merchant of Death (2002), The Never War (2003) and Black Water (2004) along the way, and SYLO Chronicles among the later groupings. Stan Rogow is credited alongside MacHale on 6 books and Walter Sorrells on 5.

Nicholson Baker, born January 7, 1957, is an American novelist and essayist. Baker's fiction favours close description and characterization over plot, and early novels such as The Mezzanine (1988) and Room Temperature (1990) examine a narrator's stream of consciousness in minute detail. Vox, The Fermata and House of Holes are the three erotic novels among ten. The non-fiction includes U and I, about Baker's relationship with John Updike. The catalogue records 19 books through Finding a Likeness (2024), including the Paul Chowder Chronicles.

Brandon Sanderson

109 books• 28 series

Brandon Sanderson, born December 19, 1975, is an American writer of high fantasy, science fiction and young adult fiction. Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive both belong to the Cosmere, a shared fictional universe. Outside the Cosmere, Sanderson wrote the Reckoners, Skyward and Alcatraz series, and completed Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. White Sand and Dark One are Sanderson's two graphic novels. Sanderson's Laws of Magic, a framework for hard and soft magic systems, carry the author's name. The catalogue lists 109 titles, from Centrifugal (1994) through Elantris (2005) to King Lopen the First of Alethkar (2026).

Cozy mysteries with a trade attached are Jenn McKinlay's speciality: a library, a cupcake bakery, a hat shop and a resale business each anchor a series. The catalogue reaches 69 titles between 2002 and 2026, including contemporary romance in the Bluff Point and Museum of Literature books and the Decoupage mysteries written as Lucy Lawrence. Stuck on Murder (2009) and Sprinkle with Murder (2010) start the main cozy runs, and Booking for Trouble is the most recent title.

Miranda James writes several mystery series. Cat in the Stacks is one, and librarians, cats and a Maine coon cat sit in its subject tags beside murder and investigation. Forty titles run from By a Woman's Hand (1994), written as Dean James with Jean Swanson, to Something Whiskered (2025). Southern Ladies, Deep South, Bridge Club, Trailer Park Mysteries and Simon Kirby-Jones are the other series. James publishes on.

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.

Con Lehane writes New York mysteries. Bartender Brian McNulty investigates in the first three books, from Beware the Solitary Drinker (2002) to Death at the Old Hotel (2007); the 42nd Street Library Mystery series takes over in 2016 and runs through Murder in the Manuscript Room, Murder Off the Page, Murder by Definition and The Red Scare Murders to Murder in the Reading Room (2026). Ten books in total, and the series continues.

Cressida Cowell

61 books• 12 series

Cressida Cowell, born Cressida Hare on 15 April 1966, is a British children's author. How to Train Your Dragon is the series Cowell is best known for; DreamWorks Animation adapted the series into a media franchise, and by 2015 the books had sold more than seven million copies worldwide. Cowell also writes the Emily Brown stories with illustrator Neal Layton, and the first, That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown, won a Nestle Children's Book Award. The catalogue lists 61 books to 2025, with subjects such as dragons, Vikings, humorous stories and the character Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. Other series include The Wizards of Once and Which Way To Anywhere.

Laura Joffe Numeroff

60 books• 3 series

Laura Joffe Numeroff is an American children's author and illustrator, born in 1953, known above all as the author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The If You Give... books form her main series, with ...Do Best and Jellybeans beside them. The catalogue records 60 Numeroff titles between Amy for Short (1976) and Ponyella (2021). Animals, friendship and stories in rhyme recur as subjects, and the median book runs 32 pages.