Green Knowe
#4784.01 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 6 books Status Complete 1954–1976 Reading commitment Medium Lucy M. Boston Last reviewed 2026-10-13
Overview
Green Knowe is an English children's fantasy sequence, published between 1954 and 1976, by Lucy M. Boston, centred on Green Knowe, an ancient moated manor house modelled on the author's own home, the Manor at Hemingford Grey, where successive children encounter ghosts, time-slips, and other supernatural presences carried down from the house's centuries of history. The opening volume, The Children of Green Knowe (1954), introduces young Tolly and his great-grandmother, whose stories of earlier child residents blur into his own encounters with their lingering presences, a pattern the later five books vary with new child visitors and new historical layers of the house. The Chimneys of Green Knowe (1958) was published in the United States as Treasure of Green Knowe. The sequence is regarded as a landmark of English time-slip fantasy for children, admired for its close, almost architectural attention to the house itself as a character.
Portal fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (6 works) counts toward ranking
Green Knowe Lucy M. Boston
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Children of Green Knowe; ISBN recorded is the Harcourt Young Classics edition (2002); the 1954 first edition predates ISBNs. | 1954 | 1 | core | 4.00 (10,070 ratings) |
 | The Chimneys of Green Knowe; ISBN recorded is the Harcourt Young Classics edition (2002), published in the US as Treasure of Green Knowe; the 1958 first edition predates ISBNs. | 1958 | 2 | core | 4.11 (2,369 ratings) |
 | The River at Green Knowe; ISBN recorded is the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Odyssey Classic edition (1989); the 1959 first edition predates ISBNs. | 1959 | 3 | core | 3.87 (1,355 ratings) |
 | A Stranger at Green Knowe; ISBN recorded is the Harcourt Young Classics edition (2002); the 1961 first edition predates ISBNs. | 1961 | 4 | core | 3.96 (1,169 ratings) |
 | An Enemy at Green Knowe; ISBN recorded is the Harcourt Young Classics edition (2002); the 1964 first edition predates ISBNs. | 1964 | 5 | core | 4.07 (1,253 ratings) |
 | The Stones of Green Knowe; ISBN recorded is the Harcourt Young Classics edition (2005). | 1976 | 6 | core | 4.05 (685 ratings) |
Core Canon = all six novels; complete sequence, no companion material.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Green Knowe? Green Knowe's Core Canon is 6 books.
- What is the reading order for Green Knowe? Publication order, starting with The Children of Green Knowe. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Green Knowe finished? Complete (1954–1976).
- How much reading does Green Knowe take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 6 Core Canon books).
- How is Green Knowe ranked? #478 in this site's official ranking, based on 16,901 reader ratings across 6 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #478?
Ranked #478 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.01 across 6 core books.
- A smaller readership (16,901 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #477, Age of the Five (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.46.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 6 books · Complete · 17k ratings · Ranks #478 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length portal fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (6 Core Canon books)
- The Children of Green Knowe (1954)
- The Chimneys of Green Knowe (1958)
- The River at Green Knowe (1959)
- A Stranger at Green Knowe (1961)
- An Enemy at Green Knowe (1964)
- The Stones of Green Knowe (1976)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
A Stranger at Green Knowe won the 1961 Carnegie Medal; The Children of Green Knowe and The Chimneys of Green Knowe were each a commended runner-up for the same medal in their own publication years.You might also like
Suggestions computed from what Green Knowe and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.01 across 16,901 ratings on 6 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: Green Knowe (Lucy M. Boston) accepted 2026-09-14
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia Tier 2
- Wikipedia Tier 2
- reader rating platform Tier 1
Last reviewed: 2026-09-14
Rule: Core Canon = all six novels; complete sequence, no companion material.