Roland Smith

An American author, the well known and equally well regarded author Roland Smith has come to be highly praised for his unique and perceptive brand of young adult fiction which he has been writing for a number of years now. With a large quantity of titles, he is largely seen as being at the forefront of the genre, pioneering much of it for the many writers that have followed in his footsteps since. He has also written a number of non-fiction books as well, with many of them being focused upon animals and animal welfare, something which is of a primary interest to him as an author.

The best place to start is the Great Episodes series, the earliest of Roland Smith's multi-book series: it opens with A Ride into Morning (1991) and runs to 21 books across 1991–2011, ending with Leigh Ann's Civil War (2011). Roland Smith's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Roland Smith has 127 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1990 and 2025. 112 of them belong to 12 named series — the largest being the Discover America State By State series with 51 books — and 15 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. Roland Smith's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Great Episodes (1991–2011, 21 books), Jacob Lansa (1995–1999, 3 books) and Discover America State By State (2000–2011, 51 books), plus 9 more.

This guide splits Roland Smith's 127 books into 12 named series and 15 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Discover America State By State (51 books, 2000–2011); Great Episodes (21 books, 1991–2011); Alphabet Picture (7 books, 2003–2015); I, Q (6 books, 2008–2014); The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers (6 books, 2011–2013), plus 7 further series.