Series Books: Does the Reading Order Really Matter?

I get a very satisfied feeling when I hook a reader on a series book. It’s almost like teaching them to fish. Once they are caught, they can feed themselves. They can find the books by themselves―sometimes recognizing the spine from across the room. Often a publisher even puts the number of the book on its spine, making it easy for the reader to know which book comes next. Thirdly, if they are written by the same author, they’re pretty easy to shelve. Who has time to put them in order anyway?Another plus is that it makes shopping easier. Once you know your students will read the series, it’s practically an automatic purchase. Buying books in a series also saves you time, so that you can spend more time enriching literacy experiences. 

On the other hand, there can be stumbling blocks. Here’s a hiccup: What if you don’t have the first book?

Maybe book two came in your JLG order or the first book goes missing. And then you have to think about your budget. A trilogy is one thing, but a multiple volume series can take a good bit of your funding. 

Then there is the kiddo who gets hooked on a series and won’t read anything else. (Tip: Use the Discover Like Books feature on TeachingBooks of their series. Ask a few questions, and you may be able to expand their reading options while they wait for the next in their favorite series.) 

In 2020, I kept hearing about The Thief Knot: A Greenglass House Story. (Confession: I never read the first three books.) After the fourth starred review, I decided to give it a go. If I was lost jumping into the series midstream, I would put it down. Spoiler Alert: I never put it down. I raced through 454 pages and jumped right into Book 5: The Raconteur’s Commonplace Book. If anything, reading Book 4 just made me want to go back and start the series. (Highly recommended, by the way)

In series fiction, each book may (mostly) stand on its own. Oftentimes a second or third book doesn’t publish right away. Readers can forget the details, so an author gently reminds them in a sequel, just as any good storyteller does. The honest truth is that a good book often has enough backstory in a sequel to help a reader connect to the previous book.

Sometimes a book isn’t a true sequel; it’s a companion, meaning some of the characters are the same, but it isn’t dependent on anything else. Leaving Lymon is a companion title for Finding Langston. How did it come to be? Listen to the Meet-the-Author Recording to find out why this stand-alone book is now part of a trilogy. Being Clem releases August 3, 2021.

Then there is the trilogy. By definition, it’s meant to be read in order. I recently attended an author talk for Book Three of Margaret Peterson Haddix’s newest series. She was a pro at talking about The Messengers without spoiling the first two books. 

Other fiction series aren’t chronological at all. How many of us actually read Nancy Drew in order? Does it really matter? Not really. However, we all have readers who absolutely must read them in sequential order, but just like anything else, a little guidance can go a long way.

On the whole though, a series’ literacy benefits outweigh the negatives. As a teacher or librarian, it’s one of the easiest ways to support your reluctant, struggling, and avid readers. Knowing the setting and characters in a novel helps both reluctant and struggling readers move onto the problem in the new story. Avid readers can hardly wait for the next in a series. 

I read an author interview where a parent brought her child to a book signing, saying her daughter had always had reading difficulties. She told him that on a whim, she had bought her daughter the first book in his young reader series. At first her daughter resisted reading it. But eventually she gave in because it had a funny cover and the chapters were short. And she got hooked! In fact, according to the mother, this girl had now read all the books in the series and was even trying to write her own story.

Last but not least, remember that nonfiction also comes in a series. Being familiar with series nonfiction allows teachers and librarians to feel safe about content area purchases. Scientists in the Field is a good example. 

On a personal note, I read the Schwa (Antsy Bonano) series completely backward―mostly by accident. I had no problems at all. Other series build from one volume to the next. Reading The Obsidian Mirror out of order could really be confusing. If Jake and his father had already found each other, why would they need to look for each other?

Sometimes order does matter. So how can you find out what that order is

What’s the Order? 

Many book sellers mark selections with a series icon (think Junior Library Guild). PermaBound even has a series tracker for which you can sign up. 

TeachingBooks has a Series Collection. Narrow your options by selecting grade level, cultural area, or genre. The selected series will show you the books in order. Use the share tool to create 2 x 4 labels and paste in each book of the series. Students will always have an easy reference to the list of the series, as well as reading enrichment resources—just inside the cover. And even better, as new titles and resources are added, your QR codes update the content as if by magic. 

You can also watch the Two-Minute Takeaway, Series Labels for more information. 

About the contributor:
Deborah Salyer is a long-time lover of children’s and YA lit. Her seminars and workshops have created piles of books to be read on nightstands from the east to west coasts. She’s also the CA Implementation Specialist for TeachingBooks and a senior presenter at BER.org, What’s New in Children’s Books, K-6.