Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Firemen | 1969 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 2 | The Ship That Came Down the Gutter | 1970 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 3 | Elephant Boy: A Story of the Stone Age | 1970 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 4 | The Day the Gang Got Rich | 1970 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 5 | The Return of Crazy Horse | 1971 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 6 | The Supreme, Superb, Exalted and Delightful, One and Only Magic Building | 1973 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 7 | Up The Alley with Jack and Joe | 1974 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 8 | The Leopard’s Tooth | 1976 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 9 | The Ants Who Took Away Time | 1978 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 10 | The Nap Master | 1979 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 11 | The World Is Big and I’m So Small | 1986 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 12 | The Million-Dollar Bear | 1995 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
| 13 | Walter the Farting Dog and the Windy Day | 2015 | William Kotzwinkle | Buy |
Kotzwinkle’s children’s books stretch across nearly five decades, from The Firemen in 1969 to Walter the Farting Dog and the Windy Day in 2015, and they share a quality of genuine imaginative investment rather than the dutiful production of a novelist doing a side project. He has always seemed as comfortable writing for children as for adults, and many of the children’s titles have their own distinct character rather than blurring together.
The early books, published in the late 1960s and early 1970s, include Elephant Boy: A Story of the Stone Age, illustrated by Joe Servello, and The Return of Crazy Horse, both showing Kotzwinkle’s interest in historical and non-contemporary settings. Later titles like The Ants Who Took Away Time and The Nap Master have a gentler, more domestic fantasy quality. The World Is Big and I’m So Small (1986) and The Million-Dollar Bear (1995) round out the middle period.
Joe Servello’s illustrations are an important part of what makes many of these books work. His detailed crosshatched style brings warmth and visual interest to worlds that might otherwise feel thin on the page, and the two developed a productive partnership across multiple decades. For readers interested in mid-century and late-twentieth-century American children’s illustration, the Kotzwinkle-Servello collaborations are worth seeking out.