Plot-your-own stories book series in reading order

by R.L. Stine

by Tracey West

R.L. Stine

589 books• 64 series

Robert Lawrence Stine, born October 8, 1943, is an American novelist who writes horror fiction for children. Goosebumps, the series Stine created, sold more than 400 million copies in 35 languages and grew into a franchise of two television series, video games, comics and two feature films. Fear Street, Stine's horror sequence for teenagers, passed 80 million copies and was adapted for film. Stine has been called the Stephen King of children's literature. The listing runs to 590 titles, from How to Be Funny (1978), published as Jovial Bob Stine, to How to Train Your Dummy, scheduled for 2027.

Tracey West, born October 1, 1965, is a children's author who writes for licensed series such as Pokémon and SpongeBob SquarePants. The catalogue lists 356 titles from 1988 to 2027, reaching Heart of the Ruby Dragon (2026), with Claw of the Diamond Dragon due in 2027. Named series include Pokémon chapter books, novelizations and readers, Naruto Chapter Books, LEGO Ninjago Reader, Bakugan Chapter Books, Pixie Tricks, Pet Vet Club and Scream Shop Pick Your Path. Dragon Masters and Heroes in Training appear as recurring lines. Ninja, dragons and plot-your-own stories appear among the subject headings.

Rose Estes writes fantasy and science fiction, in full-length novels and in multiple-choice gamebooks. Dungeon of Dread (1982) opens the catalogue, one of four Estes titles dated that year alongside Mountain of Mirrors, Pillars of Pentegarn and Return to Brookmere. Recorded subjects tie the early run to Dungeons and Dragons and to the Endless Quest plot-your-own format. The catalogue holds 32 books through to On Arena (2009), with Saga of the Lost Lands, Katherine Sinclair and Iron Dragons recorded as series. The list is marked likely complete.

Franklin W. Dixon is the author name on the Hardy Boys books, and the catalogue lists 473 titles under the Dixon name from 1927 to 2023. The Tower Treasure, The House on the Cliff and The Secret of the Old Mill all date from 1927. Dixon series include Hardy Boys Casefiles, Hardy Boys Adventures, Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers, Hardy Boys: Secret Files and Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Super Mystery, plus the Ted Scott Flying Stories. Undercover Bookworms (2023) is the newest title.

Dan Jolley

34 books• 11 series

Dan Jolley is an American novelist and comic book writer. The comics work takes in DC Comics' Firestorm, where Jolley created Jason Rusch, the second Firestorm, with the artist Chris Cross, and Twisted Journeys, a run of gamebooks in graphic novel form from Graphic Universe. The Gray Widow's Walk opens the Gray Widow trilogy, published through Seventh Star Press, and Alex Unlimited is a young adult science fiction espionage series. The catalogue lists 34 books dated 2002 to 2021, several of them G.I. Joe and Star Trek tie-ins.

Steve Jackson's catalogue opens with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1982) and holds 26 books through to Secrets of Salamonis (2022). Subject headings record plot-your-own stories, fantasy games, fantasy fiction and children's fiction, alongside crime, murder, case studies and biography. Titles from the 1980s include Starship Traveller (1983), The Citadel of Chaos (1983), House of Hell (1984), Appointment with F.E.A.R. (1985) and Creature of Havoc (1986). Ian Livingstone shares a credit on 3 titles and Jonathan Green on one. Saving Annie is the series recorded under the name.

Ellen Kushner writes fantasy and plot-your-own stories. World of Riverside and Ellen Kushner Audiobooks are the two series in the catalogue, with Riverside listed as an imaginary place and duelling, swordplay, fairy tales and Robin Hood among the subjects. Choose Your Own Adventure is the recorded character entry. Thirteen books are listed from Outlaws of Sherwood Forest (1985) to The Witches of Lublin (2011), among them Statue of Liberty Adventure (1986), Swordspoint (1987), Knights of the Round Table (1988), Thomas the Rhymer (1990) and The Privilege of the Sword (2006).

Sport drives Rich Wallace's fiction for young readers. Basketball and soccer supply most of the plots, with teamwork, sportsmanship, competition and self-confidence among the listed subjects, across the Winning Season, Kickers, Game Face and Up2u series. Wallace's 43 catalogued books start at Riding Time and Wrestling Sturbridge in 1996 and end with Race Against Time: The Untold Story of Scipio Jones and the Battle to Save Twelve Innocent Men (2021). Volumes are short, at a median of 117 pages.

Jill Santopolo writes for children and for adults. The children's half of the catalogue holds the Alec Flint, Super Sleuth mysteries and the Sparkle Spa books, whose subjects are sisters, manicuring and beauty shops; the adult half holds the Light We Lost series and its treatment of love and man-woman relationships. Santopolo's 19 catalogued books span 2008 to 2025, from The Nina, the Pinta, and the Vanishing Treasure (2008) to The Love We Found (2025). Santopolo is actively publishing.

Chris Van Allsburg

20 books• 5 series

Chris Van Allsburg, born June 18, 1949, is an American author and illustrator of children's books. Jumanji (1981) and The Polar Express (1985), both written and illustrated by Van Allsburg, won Caldecott Medals and were later filmed, and The Garden of Abdul Gasazi (1979) was a Caldecott runner-up in 1980. Van Allsburg was the 1986 U.S. nominee for the International Hans Christian Andersen Award. The catalogue lists 20 books through The Misadventures of Sweetie Pie (2014), including The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (1984) and Two Bad Ants (1988).

Stephen Bly has 98 books in the catalogue, published from 1981 to 2013, and the list is likely complete. Radical Discipleship (1981) is the earliest, followed by Devotions with a Difference (1982) and God's Angry Side (1982), with Crystal's Blizzard Trek (1986) among the titles that followed and When the Cowboys Come to Town (2013) the newest. Bly series include Legend of Stuart Brannon, Code of the West, Crystal Blake Adventures, Adventures of Nathan T. Riggins, Fortunes of the Black Hills, Austin-Stoner Files, Hidden West, Old California and Heroines of the Golden West. Subjects include westerns, Christian life, women pioneers and the American West.

William H. Keith writes military fiction and science fiction. Naval warfare supplies much of the subject matter, from Navy SEALs and aircraft carriers to submarines, naval battles and the Vietnam War, with men's adventure and espionage alongside. The catalogue runs to 116 titles dated between 1985 and 2021, and the 1990s are its busiest decade. SEAL Team Seven, Carrier, Warstrider, Silent Service, Freedom's Rangers, Cybernarc and Renegade Legion are among the series. The listing also carries tabletop game material, sourcebooks and CD-ROM game guides under Keith's name, including Twilight: 2000 titles. No book is listed after 2021.

Peter Lerangis

93 books• 27 series

Peter Lerangis, born Peter Duncan Lerangis in Brooklyn, New York, in 1955, is an American author of children's and young adult fiction. Lerangis is best known for the Seven Wonders series and for work on the 39 Clues series. Some catalogued titles, such as License to Drive (1988), appeared under the name A.L. Singer. Series include Abracadabra, Spy X, Drama Club, Max Tilt, Throwback, Antarctica and Cerulean. Subjects include adventure, fantasy, mystery, twins, dinosaurs, theater and Atlantis, and the newest title is Out of Time (2021).

Barbara Bartholomew's catalogue holds 52 books from The Cereal Box Adventures (1981) to Granny Magic (2018). Early titles include Flight into the unknown (1982), The Great Gradepoint Mystery (1983) and A Love Like This (1984). Series include Lavender, Texas, Magic Moments, Time Keeper, Medicine Stick, Wolf Creek Mystery, Microkid Mystery and Chronicles of the Magic Land. Subjects include plot-your-own stories, mystery stories, computers and high school students. Bartholomew was born in Oklahoma and writes contemporary and inspirational fiction.

Jody Lynn Nye

37 books• 16 series

Jody Lynn Nye, born 1957, is an American science fiction writer credited as author or co-author of roughly forty novels and more than a hundred short stories. Nye's specialism is action-driven science fiction and fantasy with a humorous register: contemporary fantasy such as Mythology 101 at one end, military science fiction such as Strong Arm Tactics at the other. About a third of the novels are collaborations. The catalogue holds 37 books from Dragonharper (1987) to 1635: The Weaver's Code (2024), with Mythology, Taylor's Ark, Tildi Summerbee, Bright Sparks and Wolfe Pack among the recorded series.

Alaya Dawn Johnson

13 books• 3 series

Alaya Dawn Johnson, born in 1982, is an American writer of speculative fiction. Thirteen books are catalogued from Racing the Dark (2007) to What I Saw Before the War (2025). Zephyr Hollis and Spirit Binders are Johnson's catalogued series, and other titles include The Burning City (2009), Moonshine (2010), The Summer Prince (2013) and Love Is the Drug (2014). Recorded subjects include vampires, spirits, coming of age, young women and New York City.