William Joyce

William Joyce is a children’s book author from Shreveport. He came to the attention of literary buffs when his animated short film “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” was the winner of the Academy Award in 2012.

The best place to start is the Reading Rainbow series, the earliest of William Joyce's multi-book series: it opens with Over the River and Through the Wood (1844) and runs to 30 books across 1844–1994, ending with Water, Water Everywhere (1994). William Joyce's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

William Joyce has 81 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1844 and 2020. 65 of them belong to 6 named series — the largest being the Reading Rainbow series with 30 books — and 16 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. William Joyce's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Reading Rainbow (1844–1994, 30 books), Dinosaur Bob (1988–1999, 4 books) and Rolie Polie Olie (1999–2006, 18 books), plus 3 more.

This guide splits William Joyce's 81 books into 6 named series and 16 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Reading Rainbow (30 books, 1844–1994); Rolie Polie Olie (18 books, 1999–2006); Guardians of Childhood (6 books, 2011–2018); Dinosaur Bob (4 books, 1988–1999); Toothiana (4 books, 2012), plus 1 further series.