Puzzles book series in reading order

by Parnell Hall

by Gene Luen Yang

by Louis Sachar

by Ernest Cline

Parnell Hall (October 31, 1944 to December 15, 2020) was an American mystery writer, known for the Puzzle Lady and Stanley Hastings series. Hall also wrote the screenplay for the 1984 film C.H.U.D. The Puzzle Lady stories carried crosswords made with Manny Nosowsky and sudoku made with Will Shortz. Writing as J.P. Hailey, Hall produced the Steve Winslow series, and co-wrote Smooth Operator with Stuart Woods. Malice Domestic gave Hall a Lifetime Achievement award in 2019. The catalogue lists 57 books, from Detective (1987) to The Dead Client (2020). Cora Felton, crossword puzzle makers and New York private investigators appear in the subject tags.

Lincoln Peirce

77 books• 6 series

Lincoln Peirce created the Big Nate comic strip and writes and illustrates the Big Nate novels for young readers. Born in 1963, Peirce is an American cartoonist and animator who has written animated shorts for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and created the animated Big Nate series that premiered on Paramount+. Eighty-two titles are catalogued from 2001 to Code Red! (2026), covering the graphic novels, activity books and the Max and the Midknights series. Middle school, friendship and humour are the recurring subjects.

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.

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.

Jonathan Stroud

28 books• 4 series

Jonathan Stroud is a British fantasy writer, born 27 October 1970, known for the Bartimaeus young adult sequence and the Lockwood & Co. children's series. The Bartimaeus sequence received the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, and Stroud's books have appeared on ALA Notable lists. Netflix announced a Lockwood & Co. television series in 2020, and filming began in July 2021. The catalogue lists 28 Stroud books from The Lost Treasure of Captain Blood (1996) to The Legendary Scarlett and Browne (2025), with The Amulet of Samarkand dated 2003.

Mary Pope Osborne

166 books• 9 series

Mary Pope Osborne, born May 20, 1949, is an American children's author and audiobook narrator best known for the Magic Tree House series, which had sold more than 134 million copies worldwide by 2017. Awards have gone to both the series and Osborne, including recognition for work promoting children's literacy. Osborne attended the University of North Carolina and published a first book in 1982. The catalogue counts 166 Osborne books, from Run, Run, As Fast As You Can (1982) to Sea Otter Sunrise (2025). Time travel, tree houses, history, folklore and Greek mythology appear among the subjects.

Louis Sachar

30 books• 4 series

Louis Sachar writes for children, chiefly school stories with a humorous streak. Wayside School and the novel Holes are the best known of Sachar's work, alongside the Marvin Redpost and Someday Angeline books; Holes took the 1998 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal. Thirty books are catalogued between Sideways Stories from Wayside School (1978) and The Magician of Tiger Castle (2025). Schools, boys, popularity and friendship recur as subjects.

Trenton Lee Stewart is an American author best known for the Mysterious Benedict Society, a series written for grades 3 to 5. The 9 catalogued books open with Flood Summer (2005) and run through The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007), The Perilous Journey (2008), The Prisoner's Dilemma (2009), The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict (2012) and The Secret Keepers (2016) to The Riddle of Ages (2019). Orphans, schools, friendship and adventure recur. Stewart graduated from Hendrix College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Andy Griffiths

68 books• 9 series

Andy Griffiths is an Australian children's author, born in 1961, and the Australian Children's Laureate for 2026-2027. Griffiths is well known for working with Terry Denton, and the Treehouse series has been adapted for the stage. The Just! series became the animated show What's with Andy?, and The Day My Bum Went Psycho! (2001) was also adapted for television. The catalogue opens with Just Tricking! (1999) and lists 68 books to 2026, with humorous stories, schools and practical jokes among the subjects.

Katherine Neville, born in 1945, writes adventure and quest novels built on puzzles, ciphers and hunted objects. The Eight (1988) sets a chess service at the centre of its quest, and The Fire (2008) continues it twenty years later; the two make up the Montglane Service series. A Calculated Risk (1992) turns to banking and computer crime, and The Magic Circle (1998) to manuscripts and millennial prophecy. Five books reach The Tuesday Club (2017), roughly seven years apart, at a median of 508 pages.