Raina Telgemeier Books in Order
Browse Raina Telgemeier's books in order, with short summaries, graphic novel background, and easy tips on where to start with her memoirs and fiction.
Last updated: July 7, 2026
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Publication Order
17 books
Kristy's Great Idea
by Raina Telgemeier
2006
When Kristy gets the bright idea to start a babysitting club with her friends, the jobs come fast and the chaos follows. Cranky kids, prank calls, and family changes test the club almost as much as the babysitting does.
Claudia and Mean Janine
by Raina Telgemeier
2007
Claudia would rather draw and babysit than compete with her brilliant sister Janine. When a family crisis hits, both girls have to drop the rivalry and figure out what being sisters really means.
Mary Anne Saves the Day
by Raina Telgemeier
2007
A fight splits the Baby-Sitters Club just when Mary Anne needs her friends most. Stuck between a babysitting emergency and her own strict home life, she has to find her voice before the club falls apart.
Smile
by Raina Telgemeier
2009
After a fall knocks out her front teeth, Raina spends years dealing with braces, surgery, and middle school embarrassment. It's a funny, painfully honest memoir about changing friendships, crushes, and learning not to let other people define you.
X-Men
by Raina Telgemeier
2009
Kitty Pryde arrives at Xavier's School hoping to find a place where being different finally makes sense. Instead she lands in a swirl of mutant politics, crushes, and school drama with superpowers attached.
Drama
by Raina Telgemeier
2012
Callie lives for theater, even if she can't sing a note. As set designer for her school's musical, she has to manage a tiny budget, backstage chaos, and an increasingly messy tangle of friendships and crushes.
The Mystery Boxes
by Raina Telgemeier
2012
This Explorer anthology gathers short graphic stories built around strange boxes and what might be hidden inside them. Raina Telgemeier's collaboration with Dave Roman adds fast fantasy, comedy, and just the right hint of trouble.
The Lost Islands
by Raina Telgemeier
2013
This Explorer anthology follows hidden places, sea danger, and the pull of the unknown across several short comics. Raina Telgemeier's collaboration with Dave Roman brings island mystery, adventure, and a playful twist on time.
Sisters
by Raina Telgemeier
2014
Raina thought having a sister would be fun, but life with Amara is more bickering than bonding. A family road trip and trouble at home force them to reckon with rivalry, loyalty, and the fact that sisters are stuck with each other.
Ghosts
by Raina Telgemeier
2016
Cat's family moves to the foggy Northern California coast so her little sister Maya can breathe easier. When Maya starts chasing the town's ghosts, Cat has to face fear, grief, and the limits of what she can protect.
Guts
by Raina Telgemeier
2019
When stomach trouble refuses to go away, young Raina learns that anxiety can show up in ways other people can't always see. This memoir is warm, candid, and especially sharp about school stress, food fears, and friendships under strain.
My Smile Diary
by Raina Telgemeier
2019
This prompted diary gives readers space to record thoughts, feelings, and small everyday moments alongside Raina Telgemeier's art. It's less a story than a creative companion, built for kids who want to write, reflect, and keep their own memories.
Share Your Smile
by Raina Telgemeier
2019
Part journal, part comics workshop, this interactive book invites kids to tell stories from their own lives or imaginations. Raina shares prompts, behind-the-scenes notes, and simple ways to turn memories, photos, and doodles into something bigger.
The Truth About Stacey
by Raina Telgemeier
2023
Stacey is settling into a new town while trying to manage diabetes and all the attention that comes with it. Babysitting problems and a rival club push her to trust her friends and stop hiding so much.
Facing Feelings
by Raina Telgemeier
2025
This behind-the-scenes companion looks at how Raina Telgemeier became a cartoonist, what shaped her art, and why her books connect so strongly with readers. Expect rare artwork, personal commentary, and a closer look at her creative process.
The Cartoonists Club
by Raina Telgemeier
2025
Makayla, Howard, Lynda, and Art all love comics for different reasons, but none of them know everything yet. Together they build a club where friendship, experimentation, and practical storytelling advice all happen on the same page.
Baby-sitters on Board!
by Raina Telgemeier
2026
The Baby-Sitters Club heads off on a giant vacation that includes Florida, a cruise to the Bahamas, and plenty of jobs and mishaps along the way. With every club member involved, the story widens into a busy, travel-sized adventure.
Where should I start?
If you want the classic first read: Smile
If you want the memoirs in story order: Guts → Smile → Sisters
If you want standalone fiction: Drama → Ghosts
If you want the Baby-Sitters Club books: Kristy's Great Idea → Mary Anne Saves the Day → The Truth About Stacey → Claudia and Mean Janine
If you want creative extras: Share Your Smile → The Cartoonists Club → Facing Feelings
Author bio
Raina Telgemeier was born in San Francisco in 1977 and grew up there, in a city that would later become the backdrop for several of her best-known books. As a kid, she read newspaper comics, drew her own strips, and started keeping a diary. By age eleven, that diary had turned into comics, which is a pretty direct clue about where her career was headed.
Words and pictures made sense to her together.
She later moved to New York City to study illustration at the School of Visual Arts. After college, she spent years making and selling self-published mini-comics at small-press shows while figuring out how to build a life in comics. Around 2003, when Scholastic was launching Graphix, she connected with editors there. That opened the door to her graphic novel adaptations of Ann M. Martin's Baby-Sitters Club books, work that helped introduce a lot of young readers to her clear, expressive storytelling.
Her breakout as a solo creator came with Smile, a memoir drawn from the dental accident that left her dealing with braces, surgeries, and middle school embarrassment. The book is funny, awkward, and painfully recognizable in the best way. Readers who love it usually respond to how honestly it shows growing up, how carefully it notices social dynamics, and how much feeling it packs into everyday moments.
Then came Drama, a fictional middle school story about backstage theater chaos, crushes, and friendship, and Ghosts, a more atmospheric book about two sisters, illness, fear, and what it means to remember the dead. In Sisters, she turned back to memoir and wrote about family friction, road trips, and the long, messy process of learning how to live with someone who knows exactly how to annoy you. Guts goes even earlier, into her childhood anxiety, stomach trouble, and the worry loops that can take over a kid's world.
She makes big feelings look ordinary, which is why they land.
A lot of Telgemeier's work circles the same concerns: friendship shifts, sibling tension, embarrassment, bodies that feel unreliable, and the strange intensity of being young. Even when the books are very specific to her life, or to a fictional town full of ghosts, they stay easy to recognize. She writes for middle grade readers, but she doesn't talk down to them. Her characters get to be funny, selfish, caring, scared, and confused all at once.
She has also kept one foot in comics about comics. Share Your Smile invites kids to tell stories of their own, and The Cartoonists Club, created with Scott McCloud, turns that encouragement into a full graphic novel about young makers learning how stories work. In 2025, Facing Feelings offered a behind-the-scenes look at her art, influences, and creative process.
Her books have spent years on bestseller lists and have won three Eisner Awards, among other honors, but the clearest measure of her impact is probably simpler than that. A lot of kids who thought they didn't like reading found her books first. A lot of kids who wanted to draw saw, maybe for the first time, that comics could hold their own lives.
These days she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, back near the landscape that shaped her earliest stories. That feels fitting. So much of her work is about memory, growing up, and finding a way to turn awkward, difficult, or deeply personal experiences into something generous enough to share.
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