Reading order
The Famous Five reading order
- Five on a Treasure Island1942
- Five Go Adventuring Again1943
- Five Run Away Together1944
- Five Go to Smuggler's Top1945
- Five Go Off in a Caravan1946
- Five on Kirrin Island Again1947
- Five Go Off to Camp1948
- Five Get Into Trouble1949
- Five Fall Into Adventure1950
- Five on a Hike Together1951
- Five Have a Wonderful Time1952
- Five Go Down to the Sea1953
- Every volume in order (21) ↓
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12- 21 volumes
- Volumes
- 1942–1963
- Published
- about 70 h
- Reading time
- Completed
- Status
- Adventure
- Genre
Quick answer
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Publication order
21 volumes1942–1963Completed
- Twenty-one books, one a year for most of two decades, and each is a self-contained holiday: the children arrive somewhere, find something wrong with it, and are home by the end.
- Nothing carries over except the characters, so you can start anywhere — but Five on a Treasure Island is where George and Timmy are introduced, and it costs nothing to begin there.
- The order below is the order they were published, which is also how they are numbered on the spines.
A plan for the whole series
21 volumes, 3,881 pages, about 70 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 3 months.
Share of volume 1’s readers who reach the last volume. Chance of reaching the last volume: high
Stages
4 stages, with 3 short books from outside the series between them. You finish around February 17, 2027, 16 days later than in one go.
- Stage 117 habout 3 weeksby November 21, 2026
- Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.8
- Stage 220 habout 4 weeksby December 22, 2026
- BreakMaus · Art Spiegelman · 295 pp. · score 9.0
- Stage 317 habout 3 weeksby January 24, 2027
- Short breakThe Emperor's Soul · Brandon Sanderson · 96 pp. · score 8.8
- Stage 416 habout 3 weeksby February 17, 2027
- The end of the series
We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.
Does the series hold up
Shape of the series: even. Volume scores differ by at most 0.1 points. You get the same level from the first page to the last.
Best volume: Five Go Adventuring Again (7.9, 61 ratings). Weakest: Five Run Away Together (7.7). The series is complete; you can read it start to finish with no waiting. The last volume (7.7) scores close to the series average or above it.
How this plan is calculated
The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →
Every volume in order
Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 29, 2026
The Famous Five books ranked, best to worst
- 1.Five Go Adventuring AgainBook 2 · 19437.9
- 2.Five on a Treasure IslandBook 1 · 19427.8
- 3.Five Run Away TogetherBook 3 · 19447.7
Frequently asked questions
Which Famous Five book is the best?
By reader score, Five Go Adventuring Again (7.9/10). The lowest-rated is Five Run Away Together (7.7/10).
Which The Famous Five book is the longest?
“Five Go Down to the Sea” is the longest at 208 pages; the shortest is “Five Have a Mystery to Solve” with 127 pages.
What should I read after The Famous Five?
Other series by Enid Blyton: The Adventure Series, Malory Towers, St. Clare's.
