The Dragonsitter Books in Order

The Dragonsitter books know exactly what their joke is, and they keep finding new ways to make it work. Eddie Smith-Pickle and his younger sister Emily are ordinary children, except for one problem, their Uncle Morton owns dragons, and he keeps expecting other people to look after them. That simple setup is enough to send the series into one small disaster after another.

The first book starts at home, with Eddie trying to survive a week of dragonsitting while writing increasingly desperate emails to his uncle. From there the series widens out, but never loses the original charm. The dragons turn up in houses, castles, islands, museums, wedding trips, Halloween outings and even a journey to Mongolia. The settings change, but the basic pattern remains delightfully unstable, someone thinks the dragons can be managed, and a few pages later everything is on fire, missing, eaten or exploding.

Eddie is the steady center of the books. He is sensible enough to notice how bad things are, but not old enough to stop them. Emily brings extra mischief, energy and confidence. Uncle Morton stays gloriously unreliable. Then there are the dragons themselves, especially Ziggy and Arthur, who behave a bit like giant pets, a bit like toddlers, and a bit like natural disasters. They are not evil. They are simply impossible.

One of the nicest things about the series is its form. Many of the books are told through emails and letters, which makes them feel quick, chatty and very easy to read aloud or dip into. Garry Parsons's illustrations add a lot too. They give the chaos a physical shape, so every scorched curtain, smashed room and panicked grown-up lands at just the right moment.

The tone is broad, silly and warm, but the stories still have shape. Each book has a clear problem to solve, a dragon to find, a party to save, a thief to catch, a trip to survive. Younger readers get the satisfaction of a proper plot without having to push through long chapters or heavy description. Older children often enjoy the deadpan humor that runs underneath the slapstick.

You can read these books one at a time, but going in order is rewarding because the family and the dragons gradually become a familiar little world. New creatures arrive, family circumstances change, and the jokes gain extra bounce when you know how often Uncle Morton has promised things will be fine.

If you want funny first chapter books with real momentum, this series is an easy recommendation. It is less about fantasy world-building and more about what would happen if magical creatures were dropped into everyday family life and no adult had a decent plan. The answer, mostly, is chaos. Very cheerful chaos.