Toy and movable books book series in reading order

by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

by Leslie Patricelli

by John Grogan

by Jane O’Connor

by Nick Bantock

by Alice Schertle

by Judith Kerr

by Tish Rabe

by Sam Lloyd (Kids Books)

by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

by Heather Alexander

Sandra Magsamen is an American author, artist, art therapist and designer. Magsamen makes board books and novelty books for very young children, in lift-the-flap formats, alphabet books and stories in rhyme, published with Scholastic, Sourcebooks and Little Brown. She also designs lifestyle collections for national retailers under her own brands. The 141 catalogued titles run from 1999 to 2026 and are short by design, at a median of 24 pages.

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.

Alyssa Satin Capucilli

142 books• 11 series

Alyssa Satin Capucilli, born November 2, 1957, is an American children's author whose most notable work is the Biscuit series. Biscuit, the opening book, appeared in 1996, and the series had sold more than 21 million copies worldwide by 2016. Biscuit books belong to HarperCollins' I Can Read! line. The catalogue lists 142 books from Peekaboo Bunny (1994) to Biscuit's Puppy Sleepover (2025), and other series include Katy Duck, Tulip and Rex, This Bear and Library Fish.

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.

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).

Joan Holub, born in Texas in 1956, has written and illustrated over 180 children's books and also publishes as Rita Book and Brad Bucks. The catalogue lists 184 Holub titles from If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution (1987) to This Little Engineer (2023), with a median length of 48 pages. Subject tags include Greek mythology, Greek goddesses, stories in rhyme, schools and ants. Holub series include Goddess Girls, Mini Myths, Ant Hill, Doll Hospital, Young Princesses Around the World and Smart About History.

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.

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.

Steve Augarde is a British author and artist, born in 1950, who writes and illustrates for children. Alongside novels for children and young adults, Augarde has made over seventy picture books for younger readers, pop-up books among them, designing the paper engineering for those, and illustrated the Little Red Car books written by Matthew Price. The Touchstone Trilogy and the Barnaby Shrew stories are the named series here, inside a catalogue of 37 entries dated 1977 to 2020 at a median length of 12 pages. Fairies, farm life, tractors and nursery rhymes recur among the listed subjects.

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.

Rob Lloyd Jones writes children's books, with catalogue subjects such as toy and movable books, picture books, London history, Egypt, Robin Hood and murder. The catalogue lists 49 books, starting with Animals at War (2006), then See Inside Ancient Egypt, See Inside London and See Inside Pirate Ships in 2007. Series include See Inside and Look Inside..., Look Inside, Jake Atlas and Wild Boy. Forgotten Fairy Tales of Brave and Brilliant Girls (2023) is the newest title, and the catalogue marks Lloyd Jones as dormant.

Kiki Thorpe is a former children's book editor who has written or adapted more than fifty books for children and now writes full time from San Francisco. The catalogue lists 98 books from Luna's Night (1999) to Magnificently Major (2023). Series include Disney Fairies: The Never Girls, Finding Tinker Bell, Bear in the Big Blue House, Bob the Builder, Jay Jay The Jet Plane, Meet the Kreeps and Horsetail Hollow. Fairies, magic, bears and friendship appear among the subjects.

Norman Bridwell

88 books

Clifford the Big Red Dog is Norman Bridwell's creation, introduced in Clifford, the Big Red Dog (1963). Bridwell was an American author and cartoonist who lived from 1928 to 2014. 88 catalogued books run through to Big New Friend (2021), taking Clifford to the circus and to Hollywood, through Halloween and Christmas, and into counting and riddle books. The median title runs 32 pages and the 1990s were the busiest decade.

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.

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.

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.

A.A. Milne

84 books• 3 series

A.A. Milne, born Alan Alexander Milne (18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956), was an English writer best known for the Winnie-the-Pooh books about a teddy bear and for children's poetry. Milne worked mainly as a playwright until Winnie-the-Pooh eclipsed the earlier work. Milne served as a lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in the First World War and as a captain in the Home Guard in the Second. Christopher Robin Milne, a bookseller and Milne's son, inspired the character Christopher Robin. The catalogue lists 84 titles from Lovers in London (1905) to A Hint for Next Christmas (2019), including Wurzel-Flummery (1917) and Mr. Pim Passes By (1919).

William Joyce

50 books• 6 series

William Joyce, born in 1957, is an American writer, illustrator and filmmaker who has produced more than 50 children's books, translated into over 40 languages. Rolie Polie Olie, the Guardians of Childhood and Dinosaur Bob are his main series, working with robots, dogs, adventure and the contest of good and evil, often in rhyme. Joyce started in film as a concept artist on Toy Story (1995) and took credits on A Bug's Life (1998) and Robots (2005); his A Day with Wilbur Robinson (1988) became the Disney film Meet the Robinsons (2007). The catalogue runs from William Joyce's Mother Goose (1984) to Scarecrow and the Nightingale (2020), at a median of 40 pages a book.

Kate McMullan, born Kate Hall on January 16, 1947, is an American children's author with more than 100 published books. Myth-O-Mania and Dragon Slayers' Academy are the notable McMullan series, and others include Fluffy the Classroom Guinea Pig, Pearl and Wagner and Lila Fenwick. Greek mythology, knights, dragons, guinea pigs and school life feature in the subjects. The catalogue counts 124 books from 1984 to This Is the Tree We Planted (2022).

Jill McDonald's 44 catalogued books are listed from 2006 to 2023, with board books, toy and movable books, nursery rhymes, folklore and children's poetry among the subjects. Titles from 2006 include Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs and Pat-a-cake, and Mother Goose Rhymes, Colors, Opposites and Shapes followed in 2007. Hello, World! is the series listed, and Hello, World! School Day (2023) is the most recent title.

Charles M. Schulz was an American cartoonist, born in Minneapolis in 1922 and working until his death in 2000. Schulz created the comic strip Peanuts, whose cast includes Charlie Brown and Snoopy, after developing an earlier strip called Li'l Folks from 1947. United Features Syndicate renamed the redeveloped strip Peanuts and began publishing it in October 1950. The book catalogue holds 781 titles, from More Peanuts in 1954 to Snoopy, the Story of My Life in 2025, gathered into collections such as The Complete Peanuts and Peanuts Every Sunday.

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.

Leslie Patricelli is an American writer and illustrator of board books for babies and toddlers, and of fiction for older children. The board books pair opposites and daily routines - Yummy Yucky (2003), Quiet Loud (2003), Big Little (2003), Baby Happy Baby Sad (2008), No No Yes Yes (2008) - with Potty and Toot! among her internationally recognised titles. Patricelli also wrote the Rizzlerunk Club series, including Best Buds Under Frogs and The Big Bad Lies, and illustrated the Mini Myth books. The catalogue holds 37 titles at a median of 26 pages.

John Joseph Grogan, born March 20, 1957, is an American journalist and writer of non-fiction. The memoir Marley and Me (2005) is a best-selling account of the Grogan family's dog, Marley. The catalogue holds 29 books published between 2005 and 2013, and titles in it carry Marley into children's fiction and picture books: Bad Dog, Marley! (2007), A Very Marley Christmas (2008), Marley Goes to School (2009), Snow Dog Marley (2010) and the Marley Picture series. Recorded subjects include dogs, Labrador retrievers, pets, biography, humorous stories and lift-the-flap books.