Below is the complete list of Lauren Tarshis books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of I Survived Books
Publication Order of I Survived Graphic Novels Books
Publication Order of I Survived True Stories Books
Publication Order of Emma Jean Lazarus Books
Publication Order of Picture Books
About Lauren Tarshis
Lauren Tarshis is an American children’s author and editor best known for the I Survived series, which places fictional young protagonists inside major disasters, wars, and moments of historical upheaval. Her books combine fast-moving survival stories with carefully researched historical detail, introducing younger readers to difficult events through characters close to their own age. Resilience is the central thread: the children in her stories face fear, loss, and sudden danger, but their experiences also reveal courage, resourcefulness, and the possibility of healing.
Tarshis has spoken openly about struggling with reading when she was young. She did not initially experience books as an easy or welcoming world, and that history has shaped her sensitivity toward reluctant and developing readers. Her writing favors clear storytelling, short chapters, immediate stakes, and enough historical context to deepen the adventure without overwhelming its audience. She also regularly visits schools and speaks to students about research, writing, and the challenges she faced while learning to read.
Her career has developed alongside a substantial role in educational publishing. Tarshis became the longtime editor of Storyworks, Scholastic’s classroom language-arts magazine, and later served as Senior Vice President and Editor-in-Chief/Publisher of Scholastic Magazines+. Working closely with teachers, students, and nonfiction material gave her direct insight into the subjects that capture young readers’ attention. Stories about disasters and dramatic historical events consistently generated strong interest, helping inspire the approach she would use for I Survived.
The series began with I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912. Tarshis developed the book after her son asked for a true-feeling story filled with action and featuring a child as the central character. From that foundation, she expanded the series across different periods and types of catastrophe, including earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, epidemics, animal attacks, military battles, and acts of terrorism. The books do not follow one recurring hero or continuous storyline. Each volume introduces a new child, family, setting, and historical crisis, allowing the series to cover a wide range of experiences while maintaining a recognizable structure.
Tarshis’s research goes beyond assembling dates and well-known facts. She studies survivor testimony, photographs, maps, contemporary reporting, and the ordinary details of daily life surrounding an event. That attention helps her fictional protagonists feel grounded within their historical worlds. The danger may drive the plot, but the books also explore displacement, prejudice, family separation, grief, and the decisions people make when familiar systems suddenly fail.
The success of I Survived led to narrative-nonfiction collections featuring real survivors and a continuing line of graphic-novel adaptations. These formats extend the same historical subjects to readers with different interests and reading abilities. Although the graphic editions condense and visually reinterpret the original novels, they preserve the series’ emphasis on children confronting events much larger than themselves.
Outside I Survived, Tarshis created the Emma-Jean Lazarus books. Beginning with Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, the series follows a highly logical seventh grader attempting to understand the less orderly emotional lives of her classmates. The debut received a Golden Kite Honor and was followed by Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love. These quieter, character-centered novels show another side of Tarshis’s work, addressing friendship, bullying, empathy, and the difficulty of interpreting social behavior.
Tarshis’s bibliography is therefore divided principally between the large, historically focused I Survived collection and the two Emma-Jean Lazarus novels. Across both, she writes for children navigating situations they do not fully control, offering stories in which knowledge, compassion, and perseverance become practical forms of strength.