Picture books book series in reading order

by Jane O’Connor

by David McKee

by Jonathan London

by Lauren Child

by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

by Atinuke

by Gerald Durrell

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.

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.

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).

Mo Willems

89 books• 9 series

Mo Willems makes picture books and early readers, funny and animal-led: the Pigeon books, Elephant & Piggie, Knuffle Bunny, Cat the Cat, Unlimited Squirrels and Leonardo. Friendship and emotions are the recurring subjects, and the books are short, a median of 57 pages. Ninety catalogued titles run from 1994 through Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (2003) and Knuffle Bunny (2004) to The Pigeon WON'T Pick a Color!, with another title scheduled for 2027.

David Walliams

56 books• 6 series

Born David Edward Williams on 20 August 1971, David Walliams is an English actor, comedian, writer and television personality. Walliams rose to fame with Matt Lucas on the BBC sketch shows Little Britain (2003–2006) and Come Fly with Me (2010–2011), judged Britain's Got Talent from 2012 to 2022, and wrote and starred in the sitcom Big School. Walliams's children's books have sold more than 50 million copies. The catalogue lists 56 titles from Inside Little Britain (2006) to The World’s Worst Superheroes (2025), including The Boy in the Dress (2008), Mr Stink (2009), Billionaire Boy (2010), Gangsta Granny (2011) and Awful Auntie (2014).

Cynthia Rylant, born Cynthia Smith on June 6, 1954, is an American author and librarian who has written more than 100 children's books across picture books, short stories, novels, nonfiction and poetry. Missing May took the 1993 Newbery Medal, A Fine White Dust was a 1987 Newbery Honor book, and two further titles are Caldecott Honor Books. The catalogue records 229 books from When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982) onward, with series including Henry and Mudge, Mr. Putter & Tabby, Poppleton and the Lighthouse Family.

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.

Lois Lenski

75 books• 8 series

Lois Lenski (1893-1974) wrote and illustrated books for children and won the Newbery Medal. Lenski published 98 books, several of them posthumously: picture books, illustrated chapter books, songbooks, poetry, short stories, essays on children's literature and the 1972 autobiography Journey into Childhood. The Mr. Small picture books, the American Regional novels and the Roundabout America, Davy and Debbie series carry most of the work. Seventy-seven titles are catalogued here, starting in 1928.

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.

Fiona Veitch Smith writes in two registers. The Young David and Young Joseph picture books retell Old Testament stories for children, which holds the catalogue's median length down to 32 pages. The Poppy Denby Investigates novels move to murder investigation in the nineteen-twenties, with suffragist material, and the Miss Clara Vale Mysteries follow. Twenty-eight books are catalogued, from Donovan's Rainbow (2001) to The Berlin Murders (2026).

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.

Mac Barnett

64 books• 7 series

Mac Barnett is an American children's book writer, born August 23, 1982, best known for advocating for picture books and serving as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature for 2025-26. Since 2009 Barnett has published more than seventy works, over fifty of them picture books, along with graphic novels, essays and short stories. The catalogue counts 64 books from Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem (2009) to Rumpelstiltskin (2026), including Guess Again! (2009), The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (2009), Mustache! (2011) and Chloe and the Lion (2012). Series are A Jack Book, Mac B., Kid Spy, First Cat in Space, Terrible Two, Brixton Brothers, Shapes Trilogy and Oh No!. Subjects name humorous stories, mysteries, friendship and schools.

Patricia MacLachlan (March 3, 1938 to March 31, 2022), born Patricia Marie Pritzkau, was an American children's writer. MacLachlan's novel Sarah, Plain and Tall won the Newbery Medal in 1986 and gave its name to a series. The catalogue holds 63 books for young readers, including the Barkus series, Arthur, for the Very First Time and My Poet (2022). Family life, dogs, grandparents, friendship and frontier life are frequent subjects.

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.

Tom Fletcher writes children's books, most of them picture books in rhyme. Thirty titles are catalogued between The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas (2012) and There's a Bunny in Your Book (2026). The Dinosaur that Pooped series carries much of the early list, with The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet! (2013), The Dinosaur that Pooped the Past! (2014) and The Dinosaur that Pooped the Bed! (2015) among them; The Christmasaurus (2016), The Creakers (2017), the Who's In Your Book? picture books and Eve of Man follow. Fletcher is an English musician and songwriter, born in 1985, who founded the band McFly and has written ten UK number one singles. The median book runs 32 pages.

Nick Bantock is a British artist and author based on Saltspring Island in British Columbia. The Griffin and Sabine books are his best known work, assembled from faux postage stamps, handwritten documents, passports and postcards bound into the page. Bantock's catalogue holds 25 titles, from There Was An Old Lady (1990) to The Corset & The Jellyfish (2023), taking in The Egyptian Jukebox (1993) and The Golden Mean (1993). Subjects cover imaginary letters, movable books, collage and picture books, at a median of 60 pages.

Brad Meltzer

85 books• 14 series

Brad Meltzer, born April 1, 1970, is an American novelist, non-fiction author, television creator and comic book writer. The novels span political thrillers, legal thrillers and conspiracy fiction. Meltzer has written superhero comics for DC Comics and, at times, Marvel, and a run of short biographies of well-known people for young readers. The catalogue holds 86 titles from The Tenth Justice (1997) to We are the Wright Brothers (2026), and I am Taylor Swift is scheduled for 2027. Series include Ordinary People Change the World, Beecher White/Culper Ring and Escape Artist/Zig & Nola. Other titles include Identity Crisis (2004) and The Book of Fate (2006).

Margaret Atwood

89 books• 8 series

Margaret Atwood, born November 18, 1939, is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic and inventor. The Handmaid's Tale, a dystopian novel from 1985, is the best-known Atwood work. Atwood's output includes 18 poetry books, 18 novels, 11 non-fiction books, nine short fiction collections, eight children's books and two graphic novels. The catalogue opens with The Circle Game (1964) and runs to Book of Lives (2025), with The Edible Woman (1969) and Surfacing (1972) along the way. Series include MaddAddam, Handmaid's Tale and Angel Catbird. Awards include two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Franz Kafka Prize and the Order of Canada.

Dav Pilkey

86 books• 12 series

Dav Pilkey, born David Murray Pilkey Jr. on March 4, 1966, is an American comic book writer, author and illustrator of children's fiction. Captain Underpants and the graphic novel spin-off Dog Man are the series Pilkey is best known for. Dog Man appears under the pen names George Beard and Harold Hutchins, which are also the names of the two Captain Underpants protagonists. The catalogue holds 86 books from World War Won (1987) to A Sprinkle in Time (2026), and the Dragon, Dumb Bunnies, Ricky Ricotta and Cat Kid Comic Club lines also feature.

Sarah Ferguson

65 books• 7 series

Sarah Ferguson, formerly Duchess of York, is a British author and television personality with 65 books catalogued between 1989 and 2023. The Budgie the Little Helicopter picture books opened the run in 1989 and lead a children's list that also holds Little Red, Genie Gems, Puddle Boots and the Helping Hand stories. Ferguson has written history as well, Victoria and Albert: A Family Life at Osborne House (1991) and Travels with Queen Victoria (1995), along with books on weight loss and exercise and the Buccleuch Family novels, the latest of them A Most Intriguing Lady (2023).

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

Kate DiCamillo

45 books• 8 series

Because of Winn-Dixie (2000) opens Kate DiCamillo's catalogue of 45 books for children in grades one to three. The Tale of Despereaux (2003), The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (2006) and the Mercy Watson books about a pig sit among them, with Tales from Deckawoo Drive, Bink & Gollie, the Norendy Tales and Orris and Timble as further series. Animals, friendship and humour run through the subjects, and the books are short at a median 112 pages.

Jane Yolen

237 books• 22 series

Jane Yolen (Jane Hyatt Yolen, February 11, 1939 to June 11, 2026) was an American author of fantasy, science fiction and children's books. The Devil's Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella, is the best-known Yolen work, and Owl Moon and The Emperor and the Kite are among the others. The short works Sister Emily's Lightship and Lost Girls both won Nebula Awards. The catalogue counts 237 books from The Witch Who Wasn't (1964) to Daddy Plays a Mean Guitar (2026). Series include Commander Toad, How Do Dinosaurs...?, Pit Dragons, the Young Merlin Trilogy, Books of the Great Alta and Tartan Magic. Yolen worked as an editor, collaborated most often with Adam Stemple, and in 2012 became the first woman to give the Andrew Lang lecture.