Below is the complete list of J.K. Rowling books in order of publication. This is the recommended reading sequence for the series.
Harry Potter Books
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s / Philosopher’s Stone (1997)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016)
(With Jack Thorne, John Tiffany)
Harry Potter Companion Books
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2000)
(As: Newt Scamander) - Quidditch Through the Ages (2001)
(As: Kennilworthy Whisp) - The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2016)
- The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac (2023)
Harry Potter: A Journey Through… Books
- A Journey Through Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts (2019)
- A Journey Through Potions and Herbology (2019)
- A Journey Through Divination and Astronomy (2019)
- A Journey Through Care of Magical Creatures (2019)
Harry Potter Short Stories/Novellas Books
- Harry Potter: The Prequel (2008)
Harry Potter Picture Books
- Christmas at Hogwarts (2024)
(With Ziyi Gao)
Harry Potter Illustrated Editions Books
with Jim Kay
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: The Illustrated Edition (1997)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Illustrated Edition (1998)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Illustrated Edition (1999)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Illustrated Edition (2003)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The Illustrated Edition (2019)
Fantastic Beasts The Original Screenplay Books
with Steve Kloves
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – The Original Screenplay (2016)
- 神奇动物在哪里：原创电影剧本1) (2016)
(By J.K. 罗琳, 马爱农，马珈) - Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – The Original Screenplay (2018)
- The Secrets of Dumbledore – The Complete Screenplay (2022)
(With Steve Kloves)
Pocket Potters Books
- Ron Weasley (2025)
- Hermione Granger (2025)
- Harry Potter (2025)
- Albus Dumbledore (2026)
- Luna Lovegood (2026)
- Dobby (2026)
- Hagrid (2026)
Pottermore Presents Books
- Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (2016)
- Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies (2016)
- Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists (2016)
- Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide (2016)
Cormoran Strike Books
as Robert Galbraith
- The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013)
- The Silkworm (2014)
- Career of Evil (2015)
- Lethal White (2018)
- Troubled Blood (2020)
- The Ink Black Heart (2022)
- The Running Grave (2023)
- The Hallmarked Man (2025)
Standalone Novels Books
- The Casual Vacancy (2012)
- The Ickabog (2020)
- The Christmas Pig (2021)
(With Jim Field)
Short Story Collections Books
- From the Wizarding Archive: Curated Writing from the World of Harry Potter (2024)
Non-Fiction Books
- Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination (2015)
About J. K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling is a British novelist best known for creating the Harry Potter series, a seven-book fantasy saga published between 1997 and 2007. Her official site describes those novels as the work that established her career, and they remain the center of her literary reputation. Over time, her bibliography expanded beyond the original wizarding world into companion volumes, screenwriting connected to the wider magical universe, and crime fiction published under the name Robert Galbraith.
She was born Joanne Rowling on July 31, 1965, in Yate, near Bristol, England. From an early age, reading and storytelling were central to her life, and that imaginative foundation clearly fed into the scale and confidence of her later fiction. She went on to study at the University of Exeter, where she read French and Classics, before working a range of jobs in the years before publication.
One of the most repeated turning points in her life is also one of the most important: the idea for Harry Potter came to her during a train journey in the early 1990s. On her own site, Rowling recalls the long process that followed, including the struggle to find a publisher. After multiple rejections, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was finally published by Bloomsbury in June 1997 under the name J.K. Rowling, with the “K” added at her publisher’s request.
That first novel became the beginning of something much larger than a successful debut. Reading Rowling’s books in publication order makes especially good sense because the Harry Potter series was built as a cumulative story: each book broadens the world, darkens the stakes, and deepens the emotional lives of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the people around them. The early books are more contained and school-centered, while the later novels become increasingly political, tragic, and morally complex. That progression is one of the reasons the series has remained so powerful for readers across generations.
After the main series ended, Rowling did not simply leave fiction behind. She added to the wizarding world with companion works and later moved into new territory. Under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, she launched the Cormoran Strike crime novels, which gave her room to work in a very different register: contemporary, investigative, adult, and grounded in realism rather than fantasy. That shift matters in any overview of her books because it shows she is not only the author of one famous magical series, but a writer with multiple long-form fictional identities.
Her career has also included screenwriting and production work connected to her fictional worlds. At the same time, philanthropy has remained a major part of her public life. On her official site, Rowling identifies herself as Founder and President of Lumos, an international children’s charity focused on helping children grow up in families rather than institutions. That work has become one of the clearest non-literary extensions of her public identity.
What gives Rowling’s career its lasting shape is not only commercial success, but the way her work scales from intimate emotion to imaginative world-building. The Harry Potter novels begin with a lonely child discovering another life and grow into a story about power, death, loyalty, prejudice, and moral choice. Her later writing, whether in fantasy-adjacent projects or crime fiction, keeps that same interest in character under pressure. Seen in order, her books trace the path of a writer who began with one unforgettable fictional world and then proved she could keep building beyond it.