Kathleen Ernst

Kathleen Ernst is an award-winning author that worked as a curator, historian and as an educator before finally finding her place in the publishing arena. +Biography Kathleen Ernst was born in Pennsylvania, specifically Scranton, though most of her childhood memories revolve around Maryland where she grew up. Kathleen and her sisters were avid readers. In fact, she spent many a nightly hour hiding under her covers and reading by torchlight when she should have been sleeping.

The best place to start is the American Girl: Molly series, the earliest of Kathleen Ernst's multi-book series: it opens with Molly Learns a Lesson (1986) and runs to 15 books across 1986–2018, ending with Chances and Changes (2018). Kathleen Ernst's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Kathleen Ernst has 126 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1986 and 2025. 121 of them belong to 11 named series — the largest being the American Girl: History Mysteries series with 22 books — and 5 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Kathleen Ernst's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are American Girl: Molly (1986–2018, 15 books), American Girl: Felicity (1991–2017, 17 books) and American Girl: Kirsten (1994–2012, 8 books), plus 8 more.

This guide splits Kathleen Ernst's 126 books into 11 named series and 5 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: American Girl: History Mysteries (22 books, 1999–2004); American Girl: Felicity (17 books, 1991–2017); American Girl: Josefina (17 books, 1997–2016); American Girl: Molly (15 books, 1986–2018); American Girl: Kit (14 books, 2000–2015), plus 6 further series.