Emma Jean Lazarus Books in Order

The Emma‑Jean Lazarus books show a different side of Lauren Tarshis’s writing: quiet, funny, and focused on the everyday drama of middle school. Instead of earthquakes or battles, the tension comes from friendships, crushes, and the brave act of letting other people see who you really are.

Emma‑Jean herself is a seventh‑grader at William Gladstone Middle School. She’s brilliant at math and science and loves logic puzzles, but she feels baffled by her classmates and their “messy” lives. After the death of her father, she has pulled back from other kids and chosen to study them from a distance, almost like a scientist observing a strange new species.

In Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, that distance starts to shrink. Emma‑Jean finds kind, anxious classmate Colleen Pomerantz crying in the girls’ bathroom and decides to help using careful reasoning and advice from her beloved mathematician heroes. Her plans—and a literal fall from a tree—tangle her up in crushes, rumors, and school politics, forcing her to rethink what she believes about other people and about herself.

The companion novel, Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love, takes place as the school prepares for its Spring Fling dance. Emma‑Jean is puzzled by a strange fluttery feeling whenever she sees classmate Will Keeler and by Colleen’s plea to unmask a secret admirer. Chapters alternate between Emma‑Jean’s precise, literal point of view and Colleen’s warmer, more anxious perspective, letting readers see how the same hallway moment can feel wildly different inside two minds.

Both books gently explore grief, social anxiety, bullying, and first crushes without ever talking down to readers. Tarshis sprinkles in small moments of humor—a misread social cue, an over‑engineered solution to a simple problem—that make Emma‑Jean feel human rather than a stereotype. The stories have been used in many schools as part of conversations about empathy and kindness, and the first book received a Golden Kite honor and a spot on an Oprah reading list.

On this series page you can see the Emma‑Jean books in order and decide where they might fit for the readers in your life. They’re a natural choice for thoughtful middle‑grade kids who like character‑driven stories, and they sit comfortably alongside I Survived on a classroom shelf, offering a break from disasters without stepping away from big feelings.