Josie Smith Books in Order

The Josie Smith books are warm, funny chapter books about the everyday dramas of being a young child. Josie lives with her mum in a Lancashire mill village, in a world of school, neighbors, shops, grandparents, pets, birthday plans, and friendships that can change from one minute to the next. The events are small by adult standards, but Nabb understands that they can feel enormous to Josie.

Josie is curious, determined, and full of good intentions. She wants to help, make people happy, and get things right, but her plans regularly become muddles. A present, a lost item, a school event, or a new friendship can turn into a crisis before lunchtime. The humor comes from Josie's earnest logic and from the gap between what she means to do and what actually happens.

Her mum is the steady center of the series. Their household does not have much spare money, and Josie sometimes notices that other children seem to have more. But the books never treat that as a lesson to be delivered. Instead, they show the small compromises, comforts, and moments of understanding that shape a close parent-child relationship.

Eileen is Josie's best friend and frequent rival. She can be bossy, unreliable, jealous, or exciting to be around, often all at once. Their friendship gives the books some of their sharpest feelings. Josie wants to belong, worries about being left out, and has to learn that affection does not always make another person easy to live with.

These are gentle stories, but they don't talk down to children.

The series moves through school days, Christmas preparations, seaside outings, hospital visits, market trips, and the changing seasons. Josie Smith at School turns classroom life into a set of high-stakes adventures. Josie Smith and Eileen focuses on the ups and downs of a first close friendship. The seasonal books, including Josie Smith in Winter and Josie Smith in Spring, give ordinary weather, holidays, and village routines the importance they have in a child's life.

Nabb drew on her own memories of Ramsbottom, where she grew up and went to school. The Josie stories were later adapted for children's television, with Nabb writing the scripts. They are especially good for readers moving into short chapter books, or for adults looking for a read-aloud that takes children's feelings seriously. Begin with Josie Smith to meet Josie and her mum, then continue in order or choose the setting that best suits the season.