Survival book series in reading order

by James Axler

by Max Brallier

by Chris Bradford

by Reki Kawahara

by A. American

by Kass Morgan

by Richard Yancey

by Joe Nobody

by Scott Cawthon

by Mark Walden

by Joelle Charbonneau

by Jerry Ahern

by Reki Kawahara

by Rachel Aaron

I Survived, a New York Times bestselling series of historical fiction for children in grades 3 to 5, is written by Lauren Tarshis, an American author born November 23, 1963. The I Survived books present historical disasters from a child's point of view. Tarshis also wrote Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree (2007), a Golden Kite honor book and an Oprah's Book Club pick, and its sequel Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love (2009). The catalogue lists 48 Tarshis books through 2026, including I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 (2010) and I Survived the Night of the Lions (2026).

Bear Grylls

81 books• 6 series

Bear Grylls is a British adventurer, television presenter and former SAS trooper, born in 1974, with 81 catalogued books to his name. Wilderness survival, outdoor safety and adventure are the subjects, written largely for children: Mission: Survival, Beck Granger Adventures, the Bear Grylls Survival Skills handbooks and the New Jungle Book Adventures. The run opens with Facing Up / The Kid Who Climbed Everest (2000) and reaches The Greatest Story Ever Told (2025). Grylls fronted Man vs. Wild, Running Wild and The Island, and served as Chief Scout of the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2024. Books median 186 pages.

Jerry Bruce Jenkins, born September 23, 1949, is an American writer who co-wrote the Left Behind series with Tim LaHaye. Jenkins also writes the novels based on The Chosen, the TV series about Jesus. Across more than 200 books, Jenkins covers biography, self-help, romance, mystery and young adult fiction, and 19 novels explore eschatological themes. The catalogue lists 207 books from The Night the Giant Rolled Over (1971) to The Battle for Heaven and Earth (2026). Series include Left Behind: The Kids, Red Rock Mysteries, Margo Mysteries and Wormling.

Gary Paulsen

181 books• 17 series

Survival and outdoor adventure run through Gary Paulsen's writing for young readers. The catalogue holds 181 books, from Some Birds Don't Fly (1968) to Northwind (2022), at a median length of 105 pages. Brian Robeson, Francis Tucket, Duncan Culpepper, Murphy and the World of Adventure books head the series lines, with non-fiction and picture books alongside. No new Paulsen title has appeared since 2022.

Salima Alikhan and various others is the credited authorship on a set of 32 historical survival stories for grades 1-3, published between 2019 and 2025. Each book puts a girl inside a disaster: Emmi in the City (2019), Lucy Fights the Flames, Carrie and the Great Storm, Alice on the Island, Daisy and the Deadly Flu, Leah Braves the Flood, Lily and the Great Quake. Nineteenth and twentieth century American history supplies the events, and the volumes average 112 pages.

Charlie Higson

35 books• 7 series

Charlie Higson, born 3 July 1958, is an English actor, comedian, author and former singer who has also written and produced for television. Higson is the author of The Enemy, a young adult post-apocalyptic series, and wrote the first five Young Bond novels. King of the Ants (1992) opens the catalogue of 35 titles, followed by Happy Now (1993), Full Whack (1995) and Getting Rid of Mister Kitchen (1996). The Dalek Factor (2004) appears next, then SilverFin (2005), Blood Fever (2006), Double or Die (2007) and By Royal Command (2008). Spies, zombies, survival and London appear in the subject tags.

James Axler is the pen name under which Mark Ellis wrote scores of Deathlands and Outlanders novels. The books are post-apocalyptic men's adventure: survivalism, the regression of civilisation, imaginary wars and the invented territory called Deathlands. The Axler name carries 234 titles published between 1986 and 2025, from Pilgrimage to Hell (1986) to Wraith Winter (2025). Volumes run long at a median of 347 pages, and Earthblood is a third series beside the two main runs.

James Dashner

26 books• 7 series

The Maze Runner series and the young adult fantasy series The 13th Reality are what American writer James Dashner, born November 26, 1972, is best known for. Much of Dashner's speculative fiction is aimed at children or young adults. The Journal of Curious Letters (2008), first in The 13th Reality, was a Borders Original Voices pick. The Maze Runner reached cinemas in 2014, with further films in 2015 and 2018 grossing an estimated $949 million together. The catalogue lists 26 books from A Door in the Woods (2003) to The Infinite Glade (2025), with the Jimmy Fincher Saga, Mortality Doctrine and Maze Cutter among the series.

Reki Kawahara is a Japanese novelist, born August 18, 1974, who created Sword Art Online and Accel World; both have been adapted as anime series. Kawahara has been called one of the most successful light novel writers of the 2010s. The catalogue lists 96 books from 2009 to 2026, with subject tags for virtual reality, video games, internet games and survival. Kuroyukihime's Return and The Red Storm Princess both date from 2009. Series include Sword Art Online Progressive, Sword Art Online Alternative Clover's Regret and Demons' Crest, and Goddess of the Night (2026) is the latest title.

Roland Smith, born November 30, 1951, is an American author of young adult fiction and of nonfiction for children. The catalogue lists 51 titles from Sea Otter Rescue (1990) to The Vaquita (2025), with early books on zoo animals, Primates in the Zoo, Snakes in the Zoo, Inside the Zoo Nursery, sitting beside later adventure fiction. Series include I, Q, Peak, Storm Runners, Zach's Lie, Jacob Lansa, Marty and Grace and the Alphabet Picture books; Marie Smith shares credit on 3 of the titles. Subjects name survival, adventure, spies, mountaineering and terrorism.

David Moody is an English horror writer born 19 November 1970. Autumn, released free online in 2001, first brought Moody to public attention, and a film version starring David Carradine and Dexter Fletcher came out in 2009. Universal Pictures took film rights to the Hater trilogy in 2008, with Guillermo del Toro and Mark Johnson attached as producers. The catalogue holds 29 books from Straight to You (1996) to Kemberton (2026), with series including Autumn, Hater and Front, and subjects such as zombies, epidemics and survival.

Katherine Applegate

228 books• 20 series

Katherine Applegate, born October 9, 1956, and sometimes published as K. A. Applegate, is an American author of children's and young adult fiction. Animorphs, Remnants and Everworld are the series most tied to Applegate, and The One and Only Ivan (2012) won the 2013 Newbery Medal. Applegate received the Publishers Weekly Best New Children's Book Series Award in 1997. The catalogue lists 228 books, from Welcome to Junior High! (1990) to The Littlest Elephant (2026), including Girl Talk, Making Out and Roscoe Riley Rules.

Michael Grant writes young adult science fiction and horror. The Gone series opens his catalogue in 2008 and runs through Hunger, Lies, Plague and Fear; BZRK, the Magnificent 12, Messenger of Fear, Eve and Adam and the Soldier Girl books follow. Survival, good and evil, the supernatural and the Second World War are the recurring subjects across 30 catalogued titles published between 2008 and 2019. Hero (2019) is the most recent entry.

Max Brallier

48 books• 12 series

The Last Kids on Earth, a New York Times bestselling series that Netflix turned into a TV series, is the work American children's author Max Brallier is best known for. Brallier, born September 8, 1983, has written more than 30 books. The catalogue lists 48 entries, reaching Across the Doodleverse (2026). Series include Mister Shivers, Galactic Hot Dogs and Last Comics on Earth, alongside graphic novel editions of The Last Kids on Earth. Monsters, survival, friendship, humour, food trucks and interplanetary voyages appear among the subject tags.

Chris Bradford is an English author and black belt martial artist, best known for the Young Samurai children's series. Puffin published the first Young Samurai book, The Way of the Warrior, in 2008, and Disney bought the rights that year. Seven further books followed, and a ninth, The Return of the Warrior, marked the series' tenth anniversary in 2018. The Bodyguard series began in 2013 with Hostage, in which teenage bodyguard Connor Reeves protects the US president's daughter. Other series include Ninja, Virtual Kombat, Bulletcatcher and Soul Hunters, and Lunar (2023) is the newest title.

Terry Lynn Johnson writes children's fiction about survival and sled dogs. Ten books are catalogued between Dogsled Dreams (2011) and Rescue at Lake Wild (2021), among them Ice Dogs (2014), Falcon Wild (2017), Dog Driven (2019) and Sled Dog School (2019). Survivor Diaries is Johnson's catalogued series, and the titles Overboard! (2017), Avalanche! (2018), Dust Storm! (2018) and Lost! (2018) share one exclamatory pattern. Recorded subjects include wilderness areas, jungles, missing persons and traffic accidents.

Jonathan Maberry

146 books• 35 series

Jonathan Maberry, born May 18, 1958, is an American suspense author who also works as an anthology editor, comic book writer, magazine feature writer, playwright and writing teacher. Horror Novel Reviews named Maberry one of Today's Top Ten Horror Writers. The catalogue holds 147 books from The Black Road (2002) to Bewilderness (2026), with Avalon Station due in 2027. Listed series include Pine Deep, V-Wars, Rogue Team International, Rot & Ruin Graphic Novels and Kagen The Damned, and Joe Ledger and Benny Imura are among the tagged characters. Subjects include horror, zombies, vampires, terrorism and superhero comics.

Survivalist fiction and preparedness manuals make up the work of James Wesley Rawles, a former US Army Intelligence officer and survival retreat consultant born in 1960. Patriots (1998) began the Coming Collapse sequence; Counter-Caliphate Chronicles is the second series. Survival, financial crisis and the breakdown of civil order are the subjects throughout. Rawles also promotes the American Redoubt, a survivalist refuge in the northwestern United States. Ten books are catalogued through 2020.

Ann Aguirre, born on 27 August 1970, is an American writer of speculative fiction across urban fantasy, romantic science fiction and post-apocalyptic dystopian young adult fiction. Apocalyptic paranormal romance appears under the shared name Ellen Connor with Carrie Lofty, and paranormal romantic suspense under the name Ava Gray. The catalogue lists 160 books, from Grimspace (2008) and Wanderlust (2008) to The Hocus Pocus Handbook (2026). Series include Sirantha Jax, Razorland, Corine Solomon and Ars Numina, plus Ava Gray series such as Alpha Billionaire and Valkov Bratva. Subjects include interstellar travel and women astronauts.

D.J. MacHale

39 books• 10 series

Donald James MacHale, born March 11, 1956, is an American writer, director and executive producer. Television work includes Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Flight 29 Down and Seasonal Differences; in print, MacHale wrote the young adult series Pendragon and Morpheus Road. The catalogue holds 39 books from East of the Sun, West of the Moon (1991) to The Paper Trail (2025), with titles such as The Merchant of Death (2002), The Never War (2003) and Black Water (2004) along the way, and SYLO Chronicles among the later groupings. Stan Rogow is credited alongside MacHale on 6 books and Walter Sorrells on 5.

A. American is the byline of Chris Weatherman, who also publishes as Angery American. The catalogue holds 22 books published between 2012 and 2026, starting with Going Home (2012) and reaching Resurgence (2026). Subjects include survivalism, electromagnetic pulse, electric power failures, refugees, social conflict, Florida, dystopian fiction and war and military writing. The Survivalist sequence is the main run, with Charlie's Requiem, standalone novels and non-fiction listed beside it. Forsaking Home and Resurrecting Home both reached the USA Today bestseller list, and Weatherman appeared in the first season of the History Channel series Alone.

Erin Hunter is the name on 169 catalogued books, published from 2003 onward and filed as children's fantasy fiction. Into the Wild, Fire and Ice and Forest of Secrets (all 2003) are the earliest. Series listings include Warriors: The New Prophecy, Warriors: Power of Three, Warriors: Omen of the Stars, Warriors: Dawn of the Clans and Warriors: The Broken Code. Seekers, Survivors, Bravelands and Bamboo Kingdom also appear. Subjects include cats, feral cats, bears, dogs, adventure and manga. Darktail's Judgment (2026) is the newest, with False Dawn due in 2027.

Jean Craighead George

100 books• 11 series

Julie of the Wolves won Jean Craighead George the Newbery Medal, and My Side of the Mountain (1959) earned a Newbery Honor. George, born July 2, 1919, and died May 15, 2012, was an American writer of more than one hundred books for children and young adults, with the environment and the natural world as recurring themes. George also wrote at least two guides to cooking with wild foods and an autobiography, Journey Inward, and was the U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1964. The catalogue lists 100 books from Vulpes, the Red Fox (1948) to Crowbar: The Smartest Bird in the World (2015). Series include 13 Moons, Ecological Mysteries, American Woodland Tales and One Day in the..., and subjects name wolves, owls, falcons and ecology.

Eric Walters

207 books• 18 series

Eric Walters, full name Eric Robert Walters, is a Canadian author of young adult fiction and picture books, born March 3, 1957 and the writer of more than 130 books. The catalogue lists 207 books from Stand Your Ground (1994) to Werewolves Don't Keep Diaries (2026). Series include Camp X, Rule of Three, Orca Echoes, Tiger, War Of The Eagles, We All Fall Down, Catboy and Teen Astronauts. Subjects include basketball, survival, orphans, the Second World War and adventure.