Pictorial works book series in reading order

by Lauren Child

by David McKee

by Tove Jansson

by Ian Falconer

by Julia Donaldson

Enid Blyton

957 books• 42 series

Enid Blyton (11 August 1897 to 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer and one of the best-selling authors of children's literature, with more than 600 million copies sold and translations into ninety languages. Blyton wrote on education, natural history, fantasy, mystery and biblical stories. Noddy, the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, the Five Find-Outers and Malory Towers are the best-remembered Blyton books, and St Clare's, Mary Mouse and Toyland Stories are also listed. The catalogue opens with The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies (1924), and The Naughtiest Girl in the School (1930) and The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (1937) follow. Titles dated after Blyton's death also appear, up to Stories of Wonders and Wishes (2023).

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.

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.

Tove Jansson

74 books• 2 series

Tove Jansson created the Moomins. Jansson was a Finland-Swedish author, comic strip artist, painter and illustrator who lived from 1914 to 2001, studied art in Helsinki, Stockholm and Paris between 1930 and 1938, and held a first solo exhibition in 1943. Seventy-four books are catalogued from The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945) to Little My (2024), among them Comet in Moominland (1946), Finn Family Moomintroll (1948), Moominsummer Madness (1954), Moominland Midwinter (1957), Tales from Moominvalley (1962) and Moominpappa at Sea (1965). Comics, picture books and translations fill much of the list, at a median of 76 pages, with Moominland named among the subject headings.

Michael Morpurgo

171 books• 5 series

Sir Michael Morpurgo, born 5 October 1943, is an English author, poet, playwright and librettist best known for children's novels such as War Horse (1982). Morpurgo served as the third Children's Laureate from 2003 to 2005 and is President of BookTrust, a children's reading charity. Recurring themes include outsiders who triumph, survival and bonds with nature, set in places such as the Cornish coast and the First World War trenches. The catalogue holds 171 books from It Never Rained (1974) to Down Burrow Lane (2026), including the Mudpuddle Farm series.

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.

Navajo country supplies both the setting and the subject of Tony Hillerman's mysteries, which follow reservation police and the investigators Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Hillerman's 34 catalogued books start with The Blessing Way (1970) and close in 2023. Alongside the novels sit essay collections and non-fiction on New Mexico and the Rio Grande, plus short stories and a children's title. The 1990s were the peak decade, and the catalogue is now dormant.

Dr. Seuss

95 books• 4 series

Dr. Seuss is the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904–1991), an American children's author, illustrator, animator and cartoonist who adopted it as a Dartmouth College undergraduate. Geisel wrote and illustrated more than 60 books as Dr. Seuss, and sales passed 600 million copies by 1991. The catalogue lists 95 Dr. Seuss titles, beginning with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937) and including Horton Hatches the Egg (1940) and Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949); releases continue after Geisel's death, through 2026. Stories in rhyme, nonsense verse and picture books dominate the subjects, and Cat in the Hat and Horton the Elephant are among the series.

Karen King writes for children and, more recently, for adults. Fifty-eight books are catalogued from Christmas Fun (1989) to The Foster Child (2026), most of them short, at a median of 40 pages. Unicorns, mermaids, fairy tales, humour and Bible stories fill the children's titles, and the Amy Carter Mysteries are the one named series.

Anne Hillerman

19 books• 2 series

Anne Hillerman continues the Leaphorn and Chee mysteries, adding Bernadette Manuelito to the series that carries all three names. The catalogue holds 20 titles spanning 1973 to 2027 and mixes those Navajo-country mysteries with non-fiction about Santa Fe, including guidebooks, garden and food writing, and Tony Hillerman's Landscape. Shadow of the Solstice is the most recent entry, with Bloodline: A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel scheduled for 2027.

Elmer Kelton

74 books• 9 series

Elmer Kelton (April 29, 1926 - August 22, 2009) was an American writer of Westerns, born in Andrews County, Texas. Kelton graduated from the University of Texas in 1948, edited farm and ranch news at the San Angelo Standard-Times until 1963, and was associate editor of Livestock Weekly from 1968 to 1990. Kelton's novels won seven Spur Awards and three Western Heritage Awards, and Kelton received the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement. The catalogue holds 74 books from Hot Iron (1956) to Law of the Land (2021), including the Texas Rangers, Texas Tradition and Hewey Calloway series.

Cornelia Funke

51 books• 9 series

Cornelia Funke (Cornelia Maria Funke, born 10 December 1958 in Dorsten) is a German author of children's fiction, called Germany's bestselling author for children. Funke worked as a social worker and then a book illustrator, began writing novels in the late 1980s and writes mostly fantasy about children facing adversity. The catalogue lists 51 books from Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost (1993) to The Green Kingdom (2025), including Dragon Rider (1997) and The Thief Lord (2000). Inkheart/Inkworld and MirrorWorld are series.

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.

Captain Richard Woodman (1944-2024) was an English merchant navy officer, novelist and naval historian who served mainly with Trinity House and retired in 1997 after a 37-year career at sea to write full time. Nathaniel Drinkwater carries the Napoleonic naval fiction, opening with An Eye of the Fleet (1981) and running through A King's Cutter (1982), A Brig of War (1983), The Bomb Vessel (1985) and Baltic Mission (1986). William Kite, Kit Faulkner, James Dunbar and Sword of the State follow, with A History of the British Merchant Navy and Keepers of the Sea on the nonfiction side. The catalogue holds 74 books through 2023, at a median 250 pages.

Gyles Brandreth

64 books• 13 series

Gyles Brandreth is a British broadcaster, writer and former politician, born in 1948. Brandreth presented on TV-am's Good Morning Britain in the 1980s, appears on Channel 4's Countdown, the BBC's The One Show and Radio 4's Just a Minute, and sat as Conservative MP for the City of Chester from 1992 until the 1997 general election. The books run from children's titles, Aladdin and Cinderella, both 1971, to the Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries and the Tales of Mouse Village. Sixty-four are catalogued through 2025, at a median length of 96 pages.

Michael Palin

46 books• 5 series

Michael Palin is an English actor, comedian, writer and television presenter, born on 5 May 1943, and a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Palin appeared in Monty Python's Flying Circus from 1969 to 1974, after early television work that included The Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set. Honours include the BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and a knighthood in 2019. The catalogue lists 46 books from 1976 to 2026, among them the Palin's Travels and Palin Diaries series, with In Nigeria (2026) the newest title. Early entries include Bert Fegg's Nasty Book For Boys And Girls (1976) and Ripping Yarns (1978).

Dean Koontz, born on July 9, 1945, is an American novelist of suspense thrillers that mix in horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery and satire. Koontz published early work under pen names including Deanna Dwyer, K. R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, David Axton and Brian Coffey. The catalogue holds 164 books, from Star Quest / Doom of the Green Planet (1968) to The Friend of the Family (2026), with A Storm So Bright and Beautiful set for 2027. Jane Hawk, Nameless and Dean Koontz's Frankenstein are Koontz series, and Odd Thomas appears among the characters. Fourteen Koontz hardcovers and sixteen paperbacks reached number one on The New York Times list, and sales top 500 million copies.

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.

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.

Max Lucado

278 books• 6 series

Max Lucado has 278 books in the catalogue, published between 1985 and 2026, and subject headings centre on Christian life, the Bible, Jesus Christ, meditations and biblical teaching. Lucado, born January 11, 1955, is an American author and minister at Oak Hills Church, formerly Oak Hills Church of Christ, in San Antonio, Texas. The earliest titles are No Wonder They Call Him the Savior and On the Anvil (both 1985), then God Came Near (1986), The Applause of Heaven (1990) and He Still Moves Stones (1992). Series include Life Lessons, Hermie & Friends, Max Lucado's Wemmicks and Just in Case, and children's fiction is also among the subjects. The newest listed title is Unbreakable Courage Bible Study Guide (2026).

Anna Quindlen

26 books

Anna Quindlen writes novels and non-fiction in equal measure: domestic fiction about family life and mothers and sons, set beside essays and short books of reflection. Living Out Loud (1988) opens the catalogue, with Object Lessons (1991), One True Thing (1994), Black and Blue (1998) and A Short Guide to a Happy Life (2000) following. Twenty-six catalogued titles reach More Than Enough in 2026.

Neil Gaiman

199 books• 41 series

Neil Gaiman, born Neil Richard Gaiman on 10 November 1960, is an English writer of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre and screenplays. The Sandman comic series ran from 1989 to 1996, and the novels include Stardust (1999), American Gods (2001), Coraline (2002), Anansi Boys (2005) and The Graveyard Book (2008). The Graveyard Book made Gaiman the first author to win both the Newbery and Carnegie medals for one work, and other awards include the Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker. Gaiman co-created the television adaptations of Good Omens and The Sandman. The catalogue runs from Duran Duran (1984) to The Silver Age (2024) and includes Sandman and Death graphic novels and children's books.

Leon Uris

18 books• 1 series

Leon Uris wrote historical fiction about war and about Jewish history. Battle Cry (1953) opens a catalogue of 18 books that holds Exodus (1958), Mila 18 (1961), Armageddon (1964), Topaz (1967), QB VII (1970) and Trinity (1976). The Marine Corps, the Second World War, emigration and Ireland run through the subjects, and the novels are long at a median 494 pages.

Ursula K. Le Guin

121 books• 18 series

Ursula K. Le Guin (born Ursula Kroeber, 21 October 1929 to 22 January 2018) was an American writer of speculative fiction, including science fiction set in the Hainish universe and the Earthsea fantasy series. First published in 1959, Le Guin wrote for nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories alongside poetry, criticism, translations and children's books. Catalogued titles include April in Paris (1962), Rocannon's World (1966), A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). Le Guin series include Hainish Cycle, Catwings, Orsinia and Annals of the Western Shore.