Kenneth Oppel Books in Order

Eleven-year-old Colin learns that the spaceships in his favorite video game are controlled by tiny beings. When they offer to help him in a coming contest, ordinary gaming turns into a very strange adventure.

Fourteen-year-old Eric stumbles into a centuries-long conflict between two immortals. Caught between a man who wants to preserve the past and one who wants to erase it, he becomes central to a dangerous struggle.

When Rowan spots a notice for a missing cat with startling blue eyes, he follows the trail across the city. The chase leads through streets, subways, and a museum, with a quiet little mystery at its heart.

Paul goes looking for his sick younger brother in Watertown, a polluted harbor slum where something in the water is changing people. The search becomes a tense sci-fi mystery about family, addiction, and survival.

Giles Barnes has barely moved into his strange new house before the noises start. With brainy neighbors Tina and Kevin Quark and a homemade ghostometer, he sets out to prove whether the place is haunted or just very, very weird.

Tina Quark's robot can clean, help with homework, and do almost anything perfectly. Then its circuits start going wrong, and Giles has to survive a robot-sitting job that turns into a full-blown emergency.

This early space-themed book offers quick glimpses of the universe through a playful, curious lens. It is a light, imaginative read built on strange ideas and the fun of looking beyond Earth.

Books are moving by themselves in the library, but Tina's ghostometer says no ghosts are around. Giles, Tina, and Kevin chase a mystery that feels like magic and demands more than gadgets to solve.

A strange shape in Miss Frost's swimming pool leads Giles, Tina, and Kevin to an impossible discovery. Their investigation uncovers living hydrosaurs and a problem that could turn wonder into greed.

A practical young shepherd follows a mysterious star toward Bethlehem, meeting setbacks and unexpected helpers along the way. Oppel retells the Christmas story as a warm journey story with a grounded hero.

Giles's Aunt Lillian tries a wrinkle cream and starts turning into a child. Barnes and the Brains have to figure out the glowing super-goo before family embarrassment becomes a full disaster.

Another early trip into Oppel's spacey imagination, this book strings together brisk scenes and big what-if ideas. It is funny, odd, and full of kid-friendly wonder.

Shade, the runt of a young bat colony, is swept off course during the winter migration. Lost and hunted, he must cross a dangerous night world and find his way back before the cold and his enemies catch him.

Emma enters contest after contest and never wins, until a huge crate lands on her doorstep. Inside is an emu, and suddenly her best prize ever becomes a hilarious problem.

Still searching for his missing father, Shade stumbles into a strange human-made bat paradise that feels too good to trust. His journey pulls him south into jungle danger, old enemies, and a growing battle over night itself.

Shade is pulled into his darkest adventure yet, one tangled up with old prophecies and the border between life and death. The stakes grow larger and stranger as the bat world faces danger from below as well as above.

Peg wants to be the best fisherman in the world, so catching a whale seems like the obvious next step. Her bold plan turns into a wild nautical tall tale with an unforgettable passenger.

A possible cure opens the door to fear, ambition, and moral panic in this adult thriller. Oppel pushes science and belief into direct conflict, then lets the suspense do the rest.

Cabin boy Matt Cruse rescues a dying balloonist who swears he saw impossible creatures in the sky. A year later, he and bold young heiress Kate de Vries are swept into pirates, shipwreck, and discovery above the clouds.

Tired of sea life, Peg heads for Mount Everest with little more than nerve and a fishing rod. Snow, avalanches, and a looming Yeti stand between her and the top of the world.

Matt spots the legendary lost airship Hyperion, frozen high in the sky and rumored to hold a fortune. Back on the ground, rivals close in fast, and the race to reach the ghost ship becomes a test of courage and trust.

Sixty-five million years ago, Dusk is different from every other tree glider in his colony, he can truly fly. When predators destroy his home, his strange gift becomes the best hope for survival.

Max loves being the cook's dog and the king's official taster, until a new young king refuses every dish. To save their necks, Max and the cook go searching for a meal fit for a very fussy ruler.

Matt dreams of joining the first voyage into outer space, and suddenly the chance is real. Between sabotage, brutal training, and the risks of the unknown, he must prove he belongs on the most daring expedition yet.

A dark figure on a church bell tower and a sudden storm of bats put Giles and Kevin on edge. Soon the trio is helping Father Peter solve a creepy infestation that may, or may not, be something worse.

Ben is thirteen when his parents bring home a baby chimp named Zan as part of a language experiment. Their bond becomes the heart of a moving story about family, personhood, and the cost of treating animals as tools.

When Victor Frankenstein's twin brother falls deathly ill, Victor turns to a hidden library and forbidden alchemy for a cure. What begins as devotion slowly slides toward obsession in this gothic origin story.

After tragedy, Victor tries to leave dark science behind, but grief and temptation pull him back. A doorway into the spirit world offers dangerous possibilities, and every choice takes him closer to the man he will become.

When a train delay strands Luke and his dad in the middle of nowhere, they visit a crumbling museum to kill time. What starts as boredom turns into a compact, creepy ghost story.

Will Everett boards the grandest train in the world and promptly witnesses a murder. Stranded at the back of the endless locomotive, he must race forward through danger, tricks, and circus cars to stay alive.

Steve is anxious, his baby brother is very sick, and the strange visitors in his dreams promise help. Their offer comes with a horrifying twist, and Steve has to see the truth before it is too late.

In the nineteenth-century badlands, Samuel Bolt and Rachel Cartland hunt the same giant dinosaur skeleton while their fathers feud bitterly. Discovery, rivalry, and a forbidden romance drive this dusty, dangerous adventure.

An ink blot leaps out of Mr. Rylance's sketchbook and into a family that badly needs change. Funny, tender, and a little chaotic, Inkling turns creativity itself into a character.

After a strange rainstorm, black plants burst from the ground and begin to spread with terrifying speed. Three Salt Spring Island teens may be the key to stopping the invasion, if they can understand why they are immune.

The rain returns, and this time it brings eggs that hatch into monstrous insects. Locked in a government lab and unsure who to trust, Anaya, Petra, and Seth face a new threat that feels even more personal.

Earth is on the brink as alien forces close in and old loyalties start to split. Anaya, Petra, and Seth must decide who they really are, and whether humans, hybrids, and cryptogens can stand together at the end.

Gabe gives ghost tours at the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse until he meets a real ghost, Rebecca Strand. Together they uncover an old secret society and a malevolent spirit that is growing stronger on Toronto Island.

Xavier wakes to find his family's cottage trapped inside a mysterious dome stocked for survival. Years later, another family arrives, and the real danger may be what happens when fear and belief collide.