Pictorial works book series in reading order

by Michael Bond

by Lauren Child

by David McKee

by Judith Kerr

by Tove Jansson

by Kes Gray

by Giles Andreae

by Ian Falconer

by Jill Murphy

by Julia Donaldson

by Leslie Patricelli

by Jon Scieszka

by David Lynch

by James Robertson

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.

Michael Bond, an English author born on 13 January 1926 who died on 27 June 2017, is best known for children's books about Paddington Bear. Sales of the Paddington books passed 35 million worldwide, and the characters moved into animated television, a film series and a stage musical. The catalogue records 217 books under the name, including A Bear Called Paddington, More About Paddington (1959) and Paddington Helps Out (1960). Olga Da Polga, Monsieur Pamplemousse, Parsley and Mouse Called Thursday are further series, and guinea pigs and private investigators appear among the subjects.

Lauren Child

100 books• 4 series

Lauren Child is an English children's author and illustrator, born 29 November 1965. Child created Charlie and Lola, introduced in 2000, and won the Kate Greenaway Medal for the illustration in that book; a later anniversary panel named it one of the ten best winners of the Medal's first fifty years. Her other series are Clarice Bean, Ruby Redfort and Hubert Horatio. The catalogue holds 100 titles published between 1999 and 2022, most of them picture books at a median of 32 pages.

David McKee

119 books• 6 series

Elmer, Mr. Benn and King Rollo are among the series created by David McKee (1935–2022), a British writer and illustrator of children's books and animations. McKee was the UK nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006, in recognition of the illustration work. The catalogue lists 119 titles from Mark And The Monocycle (1968) to Elmer Opposites (2020), including 123456789 Benn (1970), Two Admirals (1977) and the Melric books. Subjects include elephants, monsters, magic, and kings and queens.

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.

Kes Gray is a British children's author, born in 1960. The catalogue lists 98 Gray books from The Get Well Soon Book (2000) to One Night Before Christmas (2025), and the median title runs to 32 pages. Subject tags include picture books, stories in rhyme, animals, frogs and a fictional character named Daisy. Eat Your Peas and Who's Poorly Too? also date from 2000. Series include Daisy Fiction, Nelly the Monster Sitter, Oi Frog and Friends, Get Well Friends and Jack Beechwhistle.

Sue Hendra, born Suzanne Francis Hendra on 15 August 1973, is a British writer and illustrator of more than 100 children's books. Many of those books were co-written with Paul Linnet, among them Barry the Fish with Fingers. Supertato and Wanda and the Alien have both been adapted for television. The catalogue lists 86 books from Oliver's Wood (1996) to Mean Green Time Machine (2023), with a median length of 16 pages. Subjects include picture books, toy and movable books, animals, cats and Halloween. Series include Supertato, Wanda and the Alien, Dave, Mad About..., Pop It In The Pocket, Lift the Flap and I Spy Island.

Judith Kerr

48 books• 3 series

Judith Kerr (14 June 1923 to 22 May 2019) was a British writer and illustrator, born in Germany, with more than 10 million copies of the books sold around the world. Born in the Weimar Republic, Kerr came to Britain with family in 1935 to escape Nazi persecution. Kerr's picture books include The Tiger Who Came to Tea (1968) and the Mog series, which includes Mog the Forgetful Cat (1970). For older children Kerr wrote When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (1971), a semi-autobiographical novel that shows escape from Hitler's persecution through a child's eyes. The catalogue lists 48 books, with series Mog the Forgetful Cat and Out of the Hitler Time, and Mog's Birthday is dated 2020.

Sam Lloyd (Kids Books) makes board books, pop-ups and other movable books for very young children. The series Puppet Pop-Ups, Mr. Pusskins, Shape Sorters, Nurse Mousey and Whoops-a-Daisy World work through colours, animals, monsters and emotions. 46 catalogued titles run from Naughty Nancy and the Nurse Mousey books in 2001 to Alight: A Story of Fire and Nature in 2023. A median length of 15 pages marks these as books for the youngest readers.

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.

Kim Heacox

26 books

Kim Heacox is an American writer and photographer based in Gustavus, Alaska, beside Glacier Bay National Park, and is also a musician and environmental activist. Born in Lewiston, Idaho, Heacox grew up in Spokane. The Heacox memoir The Only Kayak and the novel Jimmy Bluefeather each won a National Outdoor Book Award, and Heacox writes climate opinion columns for The Guardian. The catalogue lists 26 books from Denali Road Guide (1986) to On Heaven's Hill (2023), many of them on Alaska and national parks.

Chris Riddell

48 books• 6 series

Chris Riddell, born 13 April 1962 in South Africa, is an English illustrator, an occasional writer of children's books and a political cartoonist for the Observer. Riddell has won three Kate Greenaway Medals, and books written or illustrated by Riddell have taken three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes. Riddell became UK Children's Laureate on 9 June 2015. The catalogue lists 48 books from Ben and the Bear (1986) to Poems to Save the World With (2020), with series such as Goth Girl, Ottoline, Platypus, Alienography and Cloud Horse Chronicles. Subjects include picture books, bears, humorous stories and friendship.

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.

Rebecca Elliott writes children's fiction and picture books, with catalogue subjects such as owls, diaries, friendship, loneliness, brothers and sisters and elementary schools. The catalogue lists 56 books, starting in 2007 with Count with Me Five Ducks, Spot with Me! and Who Ate All the Lettuce?. Elliott's series are Owl Diaries, Unicorn Diaries and Pretty Funny. Eva Saves the Day (2025) is the newest title, and The School Dance is due in 2027.

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.

Jan and Stan Berenstain wrote picture books about the Berenstain Bears. The run begins with The Big Honey Hunt (1962) and reaches 400 titles by The Berenstain Bears: Father's Day Blessings (2018). Family life, school, brothers and sisters, scouting, Christmas and Christian life supply the recurring subjects, and many of the books are told in rhyme. A median length of 32 pages places them with early readers. Publication peaked in the 1990s and the catalogue is likely complete.

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.