Parent and child book series in reading order

by Eve Bunting

by Ann Whitford Paul

by Allen Drury

Caroline B. Cooney (born May 10, 1947) is an American writer of suspense, romance, horror and mystery for young adults. The catalogue counts 93 books from 1979 to The Wrong Good Deed (2023). Janie Johnson, Both Sides Of Time/Time Travelers, Losing Christina and Vampire's Promise are series. Early titles include Rear-View Mirror (1980), He Loves Me Not (1982) and Holly in Love (1983). Subjects include high schools, friendship, identity, popularity and vampires.

Sandra Magsamen is an American author, artist, art therapist and designer. Magsamen makes board books and novelty books for very young children, in lift-the-flap formats, alphabet books and stories in rhyme, published with Scholastic, Sourcebooks and Little Brown. She also designs lifestyle collections for national retailers under her own brands. The 141 catalogued titles run from 1999 to 2026 and are short by design, at a median of 24 pages.

Elizabeth Pantley writes parenting books and, more recently, cozy mysteries. The No-Cry series is the core of the nonfiction: The No-Cry Sleep Solution (2002) and its companions on toddlers, potty training, discipline, naps and separation anxiety. Child rearing, sleep and discipline are the steady subjects. The Destiny Falls Mystery & Magic and Magical Mystery Book Club series carry the fiction, and the catalogue reaches 28 books with Critters and Crimes (2026).

Across 194 catalogued books, Danielle Steel writes contemporary romance and family drama: love stories, marriages, widowhood and the turns that reshape a life. The run starts with Going Home (1973) and continues through Celebration, with 24 Hours scheduled for 2027. Steel's catalogue also holds children's picture books, short stories and non-fiction beside the standalone novels that make up most of it.

Eve Bunting, born Eve Bolton, was a Northern Irish-born American writer of more than 250 books who lived from December 19, 1928, to October 1, 2023. Bunting wrote fiction and non-fiction, mainly novels for children and young adults, and also wrote the text of picture books. Many of the books are set in Northern Ireland, where Bunting grew up, while others range in subject from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. The Two Giants (1971) was Bunting's first book. Series in the catalogue include Frog and Friends, Horse Stories, Dinosaur Machines and Pirate Captain's Daughter, and subjects include animals, horses, stories in rhyme and mystery stories.

Jonathan London has 141 catalogued books dating from 1992 to 2022, the Froggy series among them. Froggy Gets Dressed (1992) is the earliest title, alongside The Lion Who Had Asthma and Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back from the same year. Other series include Duck and Hippo, Aaron's Wilderness, Shawn and Keeper and Brown Bear. Subjects include picture books, stories in rhyme, children's poetry, animals, wolves and imagination. Here Comes Truck Driver Hippo (2022) is the most recent title.

Sandra Boynton

103 books• 1 series

Children's board books in rhyme are the core of Sandra Boynton's work. The American humorist, songwriter and illustrator has 103 catalogued books published between 1979 and 2026, from Hester in the Wild (1979) to Iguana Miss You! (2026). The list takes in But Not the Hippopotamus (1982), Moo, Baa, La La La! (1982) and The Going to Bed Book (1982). Animals, bedtime and humour recur throughout, and Little Pookie is her named series. Boynton is actively publishing.

Jerry Bruce Jenkins, born September 23, 1949, is an American writer who co-wrote the Left Behind series with Tim LaHaye. Jenkins also writes the novels based on The Chosen, the TV series about Jesus. Across more than 200 books, Jenkins covers biography, self-help, romance, mystery and young adult fiction, and 19 novels explore eschatological themes. The catalogue lists 207 books from The Night the Giant Rolled Over (1971) to The Battle for Heaven and Earth (2026). Series include Left Behind: The Kids, Red Rock Mysteries, Margo Mysteries and Wormling.

Giles Andreae is a British writer and illustrator, born 16 March 1966. Andreae created the stickman poet Purple Ronnie and the artist-philosopher Edward Monkton, and wrote Giraffes Can't Dance. The children's series under his name take in Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, Billy Bonkers, Sir Scallywag, Nat Fantastic and the Pants books, most of them picture books in rhyme at a median of 32 pages. The listing holds 86 titles dated 2000 to 2021.

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.

Alice Schertle is an American poet, teacher and children's author from Los Angeles, born in 1941. Little Blue Truck is the series most associated with her name, and Little Blue Truck Lost and Found arrived in 2026. The catalogue lists 59 titles from The Gorilla In The Hall (1977) onward, including the Cathy And Company books of 1980. Stories in rhyme, trucks, cats, seasons and children's poetry fill the subjects, at a median 32 pages.

Karen Kingsbury is an American Christian novelist, born in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 8, 1963. Kingsbury worked as a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times and later wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News. Missy's Murder (1991), Kingsbury's first book, grew out of a murder story covered as a reporter in Los Angeles. Kingsbury is a #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist. The catalogue holds 115 titles, running to The Christmas Ring (2025), and the series include Firstborn, Sunrise, Above the Line, Bailey Flanigan, Red Gloves and Forever Faithful. Christian fiction and family life recur among the subjects.

Jodi Picoult

42 books• 7 series

Jodi Picoult is an American writer, born in 1966, whose fiction is described as family saga, often built around moral dilemmas or procedural dramas that set family members against one another. As of 2026 Picoult had published 30 novels and several short stories, and had written several issues of Wonder Woman. Around 40 million copies of Picoult's books are in print in 34 languages, and the New England Bookseller Award for fiction came in 2003. The catalogue holds 42 books, opening with Songs of the Humpback Whale (1992) and including Harvesting the Heart, The Pact, Plain Truth and Salem Falls, alongside plays and graphic novels.

Fern Michaels was the pen name of Mary Ruth Kuczkir, born Mary Ruth Koval on April 9, 1933, who died on November 12, 2025. The American novelist wrote romance and thrillers, including the Texas quartet, the Captive series, Family Blessings, Pretty Woman and Crown Jewel. Michaels's output passed 200 books with an estimated 150 million copies sold. The catalogue lists 190 titles, from Pride and Passion (1975) to A Season of Secrets (2026). Series include the Sisterhood, Godmothers, Men of the Sisterhood, Lost and Found, Vegas, Kentucky and Twin Lights. Female friendship, vigilantes and revenge appear among the subject tags.

Beverly Lewis

112 books• 17 series

Beverly Marie Lewis is an American novelist of Christian fiction and a children's author, and much of the writing concerns the Old Order Amish. Lewis taught school and worked as a musician beforehand. Born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where her father was a pastor, Lewis traces that interest to a maternal grandmother born into an Old Order Mennonite church. The catalogue lists 112 books, from Holly's First Love / Best Friend, Worst Enemy (1993) to The Christmas House (2025). Series include Abram's Daughters, Heritage of Lancaster County, Home To Hickory Hollow, Annie's People, Cul-de-sac Kids and Holly's Heart.

Alexander McCall Smith

165 books• 25 series

Sir Alexander McCall Smith, born 24 August 1948, is a Scottish legal scholar and novelist who created The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Born and raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), McCall Smith was Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and worked on medical law and bioethics committees. English-language sales passed 40 million by 2010, with translations into 46 languages. The catalogue lists 165 books from White Hippo (1980) to 2026, including 44 Scotland Street, Isabel Dalhousie, Detective Varg and children's titles.

Beverly Cleary

49 books• 12 series

Beverly Cleary (born Beverly Atlee Bunn; April 12, 1916 to March 25, 2021) was an American author of children's and young adult fiction. Henry Huggins (1950) was the first book, and Ramona Quimby, Beezus Quimby, Henry Huggins with the dog Ribsy, and Ralph S. Mouse became the recurring characters. Cleary's books have sold 91 million copies worldwide. The catalogue records 49 books through 2013, grouped into series such as Henry Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse and Ellen & Otis, with humour, family life, school and pets among the subjects.

Lucinda Berry writes psychological suspense set inside families: marriages, parents and children, and dysfunction passed between them. Twenty-five catalogued books begin with Missing Parts (2016) and reach Her First Lie, taking in The Perfect Child (2019), The Best of Friends (2020) and The Secrets of Us (2021). Hannah Bauer is her one series, and The Golden Child is scheduled for 2027.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

67 books• 7 series

Laura Ingalls Wilder (7 February 1867 to 10 February 1957) was an American writer, teacher and journalist. The Little House on the Prairie children's books, published from 1932 to 1943, drew on Wilder's childhood in a pioneer settler family. Catalogued Wilder titles from those years include Little House in the Big Woods (1932), Farmer Boy (1933), Little House on the Prairie (1935), On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939), The Long Winter (1940), Little Town on the Prairie (1941) and These Happy Golden Years (1943). Catalogue subjects include frontier and pioneer life, farm life and families.

Margaret Peterson Haddix

55 books• 12 series

Margaret Peterson Haddix, born April 9, 1964, is an American writer best known for two children's series: Shadow Children (1998-2006) and The Missing (2008-2015). She also wrote the tenth book of The 39 Clues, a series with multiple authors. The catalogue lists 55 of her books from Running Out of Time (1995) to Moonleapers (2025), including Among the Hidden (1998), Just Ella (1999) and Turnabout (2000). Other series listings include Palace Chronicles, Children of Exile, Greystone Secrets, Mysteries of Trash and Treasure and Under Their Skin. Subjects include time travel, science fiction, brothers and sisters, and schools.

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.

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.

Lisa T Bergren writes Christian fiction and children's books, with Christian romance, historical fiction and picture books all in the subject tags. The catalogue lists 71 titles from Romantic Notions (1993) to Heaven on Earth (2026). Love 'n' Romance, Once Upon a Caribbean Summer, Refuge and Torchlight all date from 1994, and The Captain's Bride from 1998. Series include God Gave Us, River of Time, River of Time: California, Oceans of Time, Once Upon a Summer, Homeward Trilogy and Sugar Baron's Daughters. Bears, polar bears, God and love appear among the tags.

Cynthia Voigt writes for young adults, on adventure, mystery, racism and child abuse. The Tillerman Cycle opens her catalogue with Homecoming (1981), which was adapted as a film in 1996, and Dicey's Song won the Newbery Medal in 1983. Other sequences include Tales of the Kingdom, Bad Girls, Davis Farm and Mister Max. The American author, born in 1942, received the American Library Association's Margaret Edwards Award in 1995 for her writing for teenagers. Thirty-seven titles are catalogued, published between 1981 and 2020 and reaching Little Bird (2020).