Caroline Carlson Books in Order

Caroline Carlson grew up in Massachusetts, where reading was her favorite thing to do. The books she loved as a child felt like comfort, escape, and old friends, and they helped make her world feel bigger.

She wanted to make that kind of space for young readers, too.

Carlson began writing early. In high school, she wrote a column for her school newspaper and took creative-writing workshops. At Swarthmore College, she studied English and creative writing, producing plenty of poetry and some early fiction before earning her BA.

After college, she worked in textbook publishing, writing and editing English and psychology books for high school and college students. She later earned an MFA in Writing for Children from Vermont College of Fine Arts, spending years drafting stories and poems, learning what worked, and starting again when it didn't.

Her route to publication had a memorable detour. While waiting during her husband's medical appointments, Carlson wrote the first pages of a pirate story that became Magic Marks the Spot. It was the first manuscript she sent to agents and editors, though she had already been writing seriously for more than a decade. When she learned she had sold her first book, she was wearing a penguin costume.

Magic Marks the Spot launched the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates trilogy, following determined would-be pirate Hilary Westfield, a talking gargoyle, magical treasure, and a world where even pirates have bureaucracy to deal with. The later books, The Terror of the Southlands and The Buccaneers' Code, build on Hilary's friendships and her growing sense of what honor and bravery really mean.

Carlson's standalone books keep the mix of jokes, mystery, and imaginative settings. In The World's Greatest Detective, a pair of young sleuths face a murder during a competition for detectives. The Door at the End of the World sends a rule-following deputy Gatekeeper across connected worlds after a dangerous breakdown at the border between them. Wicked Marigold turns a princess tale sideways, as an overlooked young royal tries to become a villain and instead stumbles into a major magical mess.

Her stories often center on kids who don't fit the role adults have assigned them. They find unexpected allies, question fussy rules, and keep moving even when their plans go badly. There are pirates, detectives, princesses, magical creatures, and plenty of people who are much less certain of themselves than they first appear.

Carlson lives in Pittsburgh with her family. When she isn't writing or reading, she enjoys baking, taking walks, exploring new places, playing with her children, and trying hobbies such as embroidery, guitar, and the tin whistle.