Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Very Fishy Tale | 1970 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 2 | Bartle Bobton-Trent | 2004 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 3 | How to Raise Your Grown-Ups | 2004 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 4 | The Millionaire Child Genius | 2015 | Lauren Child | Buy |
The Hubert Horatio series by Lauren Child is about a child prodigy named Hubert Horatio Bartle Bobton-Trent whose parents are wealthy, cheerful, and completely hopeless at being responsible adults. The comedy comes from the role reversal: Hubert is polite, organized, and cautious, while his mother and father spend money recklessly and get into all sorts of trouble that Hubert must fix.
The four picture books have Lauren Child’s recognizable collage illustration style, mixing photographs, patterns, and hand-drawn elements. The stories are light and funny, with Hubert taking things like pet goldfish and family finances very seriously while his parents act like overgrown children.
The series was reissued with updated editions in 2015, bringing these stories back into print for new readers. The books can be read in any order, as each one tells a self-contained story about Hubert managing his delightfully irresponsible family.