Memory book series in reading order

by Shannon Messenger

Cam Jansen, a girl with a photographic memory, is the detective behind most of David Adler's catalogue. Every title opens the same way: The Mystery of the U.F.O (1980), The Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds, The Mystery of the Circus Clown, The Mystery of the Television Dog. Adler writes for grades 1-3, and the books are short, at a median of 58 pages. 34 titles run from 1980 to The Joke House Mystery in 2014, with theft, schools and baseball supplying the cases.

Shannon Messenger

16 books• 3 series

Shannon Messenger is an American author of middle-grade and young adult fantasy, published by Simon & Schuster. Keeper of the Lost Cities, begun in 2012, is her best-known series and a New York Times bestseller; its book 8.5, Unlocked, reached number 8 on the USA Today list in 2020. The young adult Sky Fall trilogy runs alongside, and a graphic novel adaptation of Keeper continues into 2025. Elves, psychic ability, memory and foster families are the standing subjects across 16 catalogued books.

Alison Gaylin (Alison L. Gaylin) is an American author of mystery and thriller novels who has won a Shamus Award (2013) and an Edgar Award (2019). Gaylin studied at Northwestern University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and lives in Woodstock, New York. Hide Your Eyes (2005) opens a list of 16 books that reaches We Are Watching (2025). Brenna Spector, Samantha Leiffer Mystery and Simone Glass are series, and subjects include memory, missing persons and women journalists.

Suzanne Young's catalogue includes A Need So Beautiful (2011), A Want So Wicked (2012) and A Desire So Deadly (2013). The series listed under Young include A Need So Beautiful, Poet Anderson and Girls with Sharp Sticks. Subject headings cover children's fiction and science fiction, with high schools, cheerleading, dating, memory, suicide and the supernatural among the topics.

Susan Wiggs has 75 books in the catalogue, published from 1987 to 2025, beginning with Texas Wildflower (1987) and reaching Wayward Girls (2025). Wiggs is an American author of historical and contemporary romance, born on 17 May 1958. Series include Lakeshore Chronicles, Bella Vista Chronicles, Calhoun Chronicles, Heart of the West and the Great Chicago Fire Trilogy. Early titles include Briar Rose (1987), Moonshadow (1989) and The Mistress of Normandy (1991). Catalogue subjects include family life, mothers and daughters and love stories.

Walter Mosley

71 books• 6 series

Easy Rawlins, a Black private investigator in Los Angeles, is the figure Walter Mosley returns to most. Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) opens the catalogue, which holds 71 books and reaches Ghalen (2026). Leonid McGill heads a second detective sequence, and Fearless Jones, Socrates Fortlow, King Oliver and the Crosstown to Oblivion science fiction books make up further lines. Los Angeles and New York are the recurring settings.

Holly Black

60 books• 18 series

Holly Black is an American writer and editor, born in 1971, working in children's and young adult fiction, with fantasy and faeries prominent in the subjects. The Spiderwick Chronicles, created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and the Folk of the Air series are the best-known work, and the Modern Faerie Tales form the debut trilogy. The catalogue opens with Tithe (2002) and lists 60 books to 2026, including Curse Workers, Book of Night and the Stolen Heir Duology, with 2 titles shared with Cassandra Clare. Black has received a Nebula Award, a Newbery Honor and a Mythopoeic Award.

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).

Katie McGarry writes fiction for teenage readers, with catalogue subjects listing teenagers, high schools, friendship, secrets and life change events. The listing holds 18 books published between 2012 and 2024, opening with Pushing the Limits (2012) and reaching Risking it All (2024). Four series are recorded: Pushing The Limits, Pushing the Limits Next Generation, Thunder Road and Witches of the Island. McGarry holds the sole credit on all 18 titles.

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.

Robin Wasserman, born May 31, 1978, is an American novelist and essayist who grew up outside Philadelphia and studied at Harvard University and UCLA. Before becoming an author, Wasserman was an associate editor at a children's book publisher. Wasserman has written books for children and young adults and two novels for adults; Mother Daughter Widow Wife (2020) was a finalist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award. The catalogue lists 52 books from 2000, including the WINX Club, Unfabulous and Chasing Yesterday series.

Matthew J. Kirby is an American author who writes for middle grade and young adult readers. Kirby's 17 catalogued books run from The Clockwork Three (2010) to The Lost Horadrim (2026), and subject records name children's fiction, fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, horror, secret societies, assassins and orphans. Dark Gravity Sequence, Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants, Quantum League and Diablo IV are the series credited to Kirby. The median volume runs 343 pages.

Beth Hoffman has two catalogued novels. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (2010) opens the pair and Looking for Me (2013) closes it. Families and family secrets, teenage girls, memory and missing persons are the subjects both books record, with antique dealing and eccentric characters alongside. The Hoffman catalogue stands at two titles and is listed as complete.