Here we offer a roundup of some noteworthy children’s book series that are coming to a close. This roundup spans fall 2016 and winter/spring 2017, and includes everything from picture books to graphic novels to YA titles. Represented among this crop are a picture book series about a coveted hat, a sequence of middle grade amphibious graphic novel adventures, and a high fantasy YA series revisited after many years.
Ashes
Concluding her Seeds of America trilogy that began with Chains in 2008, Anderson raises questions about freedom in her historical YA series. Two escaped slaves seek to find their own freedom, but are pitted between America’s fight for freedom from the British – the very oppressors they escaped from.
Crooked Kingdom
Spinning off from her bestselling Grisha trilogy, Bardugo wraps up the Six of Crows duology with Crooked Kingdom. A high-stakes heist set in the world of Grisha, with some characters familiar to fans of the previous series, Kingdom follows the major players as they fight for survival in a harsh world. Holt told PW that pre-orders for the second and final volume were triple what they were for the first.
Return
Becker’s wordless picture book series, which follows the adventures of a lonely girl ignored by her busy father comes full circle in this volume. Becker’s debut, Journey, the inaugural title in the series, earned him a PW Flying Start, and Return debuted as a bestseller, with 450,000 copies in print of the preceding two volumes.
The Swan Riders
The concluding book in Bow’s Prisoners of Peace duology, which wraps up the story that began in The Scorpion Rules, pits one teen who has transformed into an AI against a powerful dystopian government.
Wayfarer
Wayfarer concludes the duology Bracken launched with Passenger, in which a contemporary teen girl discovers an ability to time travel, and falls in love with a boy from the 18th century.
Take the Key and Lock Her Up
Concluding her Embassy Row trilogy, Carter wraps up the story of Grace Blakely, the child of a family of diplomats and military personnel, who tries to uncover the murder of her mother in this YA political thriller.
The Bone Queen
Croggon’s Pellinor series, first published in Australia, concluded in 2010 with The Singing. Candlewick is repackaging the entire series next summer to celebrate the publication of a prequel volume set in the high fantasy world.
The Fever Code
While it is the fifth and final volume in the Maze Runner series, Fever Code is actually a prequel, starting with the events that led up to the mysterious beginning of Maze Runner. On the heels of the successful movie franchise, Fever boasts a 750,000 first printing.
The Immortal Throne
Despain’s Into the Dark trilogy wraps up this fall. The high fantasy novels, with plenty of romance, follow Daphne and Haden as they go to the underworld and back to prove their love, and the stakes are high when the pair are separated.
Sea Spell
The story of a mermaid confronting mythic ancestors while protecting her hidden realm is completed in this high-stakes finale to Donnelly’s YA Waterfire Saga.
The Crimson Skew
Grove’s middle grade adventure series Mapmakers Trilogy, which started with 2014’s The Glass Sentence, here concludes with The Crimson Skew, in which protagonist Sophia Tims is supposed to have finally made her way home, but instead is faced with drastic natural disasters the world over that she must help stop.
Midnight Hour
The Cam Shadow Falls series comes to a close with Midnight Hour, a YA thriller that can be read as a standalone or as a conclusion to the series. The book explores the mystery of a missing sister and a growing tattoo no one understands.
We Found a Hat
The conclusion to Klassen’s Hat picture book trilogy, a series more thematic than sequential, finds two turtles in a spare desert both taken with a single hat. The series has been well lauded; the first volume was the first book to take home both the Caldecott and Greenaway medals, and to date the books have been translated into 22 languages, and have 1.6 million copies in print of the first two titles alone.
Empire Decayed
In the finale of the Death and Life of Zebulon Finch duology, a murdered teen is resurrected and finds himself embroiled in top-secret, history-changing missions as he moves through history.
Balance of Power
The third and final installment in the Zodiac Legacy, in which teens are imbued with magical superpowers related to the Chinese zodiac. The epic battles of the trilogy come to a head here.
The Return
The bestselling adult author’s middle grade trilogy The Kingdom Keepers comes to a close with The Return. The middle grade novels offer invented backstory for Disney attractions.
Amphibian’s End
The Kulipari graphic novel trilogy concludes in this final volume, in which frog warriors fight to defend their homeland from would-be arachnic invaders. The series has been a success for Abrams, with 100,000 copies in print, a Netflix adaptation that debuted in September, and a clothing deal with label Under Armour.
The Dark Talent
Sanderson, who has a following both of adult sci-fi and fantasy readers, has drawn in plenty of younger readers over the course of his middle grade fantasy series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. Its fifth and final volume, released this fall, finds the protagonist, Alcatraz Smedry, to have successfully defeated evil librarians, but only to be faced with an even more ruinious scheme.
The Lost Lullaby
Actor Segel and writer Miller launched The Nightmares series, a comedic middle grade horror series in 2015, and now the trilogy, in which a group of friends learn to face their fears, wraps up.
The Raven King
The bestselling Raven Cycle, which launched in 2012, melds Welsh mythology with all the drama and romance of Stiefvater’s Mercy Falls series. The fourth and final book concludes the adventures of the Raven Boys and Blue as they seek a missing king.
The Giant
The fourth and final installment of Thomas’s Quarantine series follows teens fighting for survival amid a plague, while the protagonist Gonzalo contends with his romantic feelings for classmate Sasha.
The Seven Prequels
The Seven series, which was followed by the Seven Sequels, now adds Seven Prequels in a simultaneous publication. The series originally began with author Eric Walters asking six fellow children’s authors to contribute novels in a linked series. The titles can be read in any order, and follow the seven grandchildren of an adventurer as they traverse the globe. Novels (paperback, $9.95 each) include: Jungle Land by Eric Walters (978-1-4598-1149-2); The Missing Skull by John Wilson (978-1-4598-1158-4); Speed by Ted Staunton (978-1-4598-1161-4); Weerdest Day Ever! by Richard Scrimger (978-1-4598-1161-4); Slide by Norah McClintock (978-1-4598-1167-6); Barra Cuda by Sigmund Brouwer (978-1-4598-1152-2); and Separated by Shane Peacock (978-1-4598-1164-5).
