Justine Avery Books in Order

If you want her big, idea-driven novel: The One Apart
If you want strange adult short fiction: The Darkness → Out There → Almighty
If you want darkly comic suspense: Last Shot → Point Blank → It Gets Easier
If you want playful books about reading itself: This Book Is Alive! → This Book Wants to Make You Laugh
If you want warm family read-alouds: What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream? → I Dreamed You

Justine Avery grew up in motion. Born in the American Midwest, she was raised all over the world and moved more than thirty times before she turned twenty. That kind of restless, observant childhood seems to have stayed with her.

That restlessness shows up on the page.

Avery has described herself as an explorer first, someone fascinated by the stories all around her. She reads across genres and writes across them too, which helps explain why her bibliography moves so freely between speculative fiction for adults and picture books for children. She has also said she loves twists and surprises, even the kind she does not see coming herself.

Her life away from the desk has been just as varied. She has lived in or explored all fifty U.S. states, traveled through more than thirty-six countries, and spent time on six continents. Along the way she has jumped out of airplanes, bungee jumped in New Zealand, scuba dived with sharks, designed websites and technical manuals, and even welded automobile frames. Those details sound almost made up, but they fit the same pattern as her fiction: curiosity first, routine second.

At twenty-eight, she sold everything she owned, left corporate life, and chose freelancing and travel instead. It is easy to see why that matters in her work. Her books often begin with ordinary people or familiar settings, then tip them sideways just enough for the strange, the funny, or the unsettling to slip in.

She writes for grownups and kids alike.

On the adult side, The One Apart is one of her clearest calling cards. It starts with a bold premise, a boy born remembering every life he has lived before, then follows that idea into questions of identity, family, danger, and purpose. Shorter works like The Darkness, Out There, Point Blank, and Almighty show another part of her range. These stories like sharp setups, unusual pressure, and characters who suddenly have to face something impossible, absurd, or both.

Her children's books carry the same sense of wonder, just in a warmer key. This Book Is Alive! and This Book Wants to Make You Laugh are playful and self-aware, turning the book itself into part of the fun. Think Outside the Box encourages creative problem-solving in plain, upbeat language, while What Wonders Do You See... When You Dream? and I Dreamed You lean into bedtime, love, and imagination. She also is not afraid of silliness, as Everybody Poops! makes very clear.

Part of the pleasure of reading Avery is the range. One book may open with a metaphysical puzzle, another with a dark comic hook, another with an invitation to dream, laugh, or step outside and notice the world again. The common thread is not a single genre. It is a way of looking. Her stories keep asking readers to stay curious, to look twice, and to admit that life may be stranger and more connected than it first appears.

These days, Avery writes from both sides of the Atlantic with her husband, filmmaker and author Devon Avery, and family. She also speaks some Japanese and some Spanish. That feels fitting somehow. Her work is full of movement, shifting perspective, and the sense that there is always another road, another question, and another story waiting just ahead.