Thankfully, my kids love to read. However, it’s hard to stay on top of all the books they consume, especially my younger two boys, who love series of the action/adventure/ fantasy variety. I can’t remember which books they’ve read and which books they need next from the library!
Luckily, when my friend Leslie and I were discussing the The Ranger’s Apprentice series, she pulled up an extremely helpful website, Book Series in Order. The guy who runs the site, Graeme, has created an extensive data base of book series that includes everything from Rick Riordan to John Grisham.
You can search by character, and the site will pull up all the books with that character. When necessary, the site lists the books in order of publication and also in chronological order, when the two differ. The site offers summaries about characters or series to help you figure out if you’d like the books.
When you search by author, the site gives you interesting background information about the author as well as all the books written by that author, organized by series. Some incredibly prolific authors, such as Brandon Sanderson and Rick Riordan, have over ten collections of books! I can never keep all of Riordan’s series straight (is that book part of The Lightening Thief series or The Kane Chronicles?) – Books Series in Order is a huge help!
Here’s what comes up when you search “Rick Riordan”.Each book listed also has links to Amazon so that it’s easy to order the book in hardcover, paperback, or Kindle formats.
Graeme, who runs the site, offers some “Top Lists” to help you find books. Some of his categories include:
- Top ten books for kids aged 6-12
- Top ten book to movie adaptations
- Ten series to read after The Hunger Games
If you can’t find a series you’re interested in, you can submit a request to add that series to the data base. You can also subscribe to a biweekly newsletter that offers 6-8 book recommendations per issue.
The only downside to the site is it’s filled with ads, which makes it a little clunky to navigate and slow to load. It’s easy to accidentally click on an ad and get sent someplace you don’t want to go. Be careful as you scroll!
Graeme, the site manager, uses a basic and somewhat choppy writing style. He’s clearly not a fancy writer, but he doesn’t claim to be. He loves books and reading, and his hard work is an asset to other book lovers, especially those who like series.
Have you ever used Book Series in Order? Can you recommend any other similar sites that help readers keep track of series?
Thanks for reading!
This is a great resource, Julia – thank you! I agree with you about the ads – despite your warning, I accidentally clicked on one within a minute of browsing the site.
Thanks for the resource!
There are a lot of kid lit series on the site, thank goodness!
This is a great site, Julia. I particularly appreciate the lists of recommendations. Thanks for the tip!
P.S. I also use FantasticFiction.com While it originally concentrated on mystery writers, it has expanded in recent years.
Thanks for sharing!