Just like he did in “The Frog Prince, Continued,” author Jon Scieszka has taken a very traditional fairy tale and turned it on its head. This time he is retelling the story of the Three Little Pigs from the perspective of the Big Bad Wolf, who has decided it’s high time the truth is told about what really happened. Accompanying Scieszka’s story are quirky illustrations by Lane Smith, which only add to the cleverness of this delightful picture book.

The identity of the monster, which we do find out at the end, turns out to be a surprise to both Grover and his readers, who also learn that things are not always what they appear. It is also just one in a handful of books starring Grover, including “Please Do Not Open This Book!” and “Another Monster at the End of This Book.”

Even the wizarding world has its collection of myths and lore, one of those being The Chamber of Secrets, a mysterious passage-way built by Salazar Slytherin when Hogwarts first opened. According to legend, the chamber is home to a fantastic, and dangerous, beast that can only be unleashed by the heir of Slytherin himself. Fifty years ago, when the Chamber was first opened, a student died and when strange things start happening to the current Hogwart’s students, it is believed that the heir has returned and reopened the chamber. How long until students start dying again? Meanwhile, Harry has started to hear voices and has found what appears to be an empty diary. But when he starts to write in it, he discovers someone is writing him back. Someone who has information about The Chamber of Secrets and who opened it the first time…

This sequel to “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” is as witty and wonderful as the first and shows early on that J.K. Rowling was a fantasy force to be reckoned with.

The Goblet of Fire in the title refers to a goblet from which three names are selected, and those three individuals will participate in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, a series of contests that will determine one champion. The three chosen contestants perform the tasks while representing their schools: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, Beauxbaton Academy of Magic, and Durmstrang Institute for Magical Learning. Because of the level of danger involved in all of the tasks, a magical rule is set up so that only overage wizards are supposed to be eligible, but something goes amiss and young Harry Potter’s name comes out of the goblet: a mysterious fourth contestant. By the rules of the tournament, Potter is required to participate, and early on he figures out somebody must have put his name in the goblet with the hope that he would die in the middle of one of the tasks. But in between trying to stay alive and find out who wants him dead, Harry Potter finds out his scari er task is yet to come: asking crush Cho Chang to be his date at the tournament ball.

For the first time in the series, Harry Potter and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger do not return to Hogwarts at the end of the summer. Instead, the trio goes off on an adventure to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes referred to at the end of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” While they are exploring the fringes of civilization for these magical relics, things back home are not going well, as an interesting plotline against Muggle-borns emerges, reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Will the Horcruxes be found and destroyed? Who will win the ultimate battle: Harry or Voldemort? And was I right about Snape after all? You will have to read the book and find out for yourself, of course.

This is definitely the darkest book in the Harry Potter series, and at the end readers are witness to the first major character death (I was in mourning for days). We also meet Dolores Umbridge, the fifth Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in five books and arguably the most evil of them all. But delightfully so. Readers of all ages will love to hate Umbridge, with her sickly sweet voice and pink hair bow. This book is, without a doubt, my favorite in the entire series. Everything is so incredibly well done, from the main story and its subplots to the relationships between characters. Every time I read it I fall in love all over again.

In this book we are also introduced to Dementors, which are the guards at Azkaban. Hooded creatures without a face, they are known for performing the Dementor “kiss,” which sucks the soul out of their victims. Death is considered a better punishment. Even without the kiss, the very presence of Dementors causes people to feel sad and upset, as though they would never be happy again, and in interviews author J.K. Rowling has described Dementors as her manifestation of depression. Through his teacher, Harry learns how to produce a Patronus, a magical shield that fights Dementors. The shape of the shield is different for each person, and by the end of the book children and adults alike will be wondering what their own Patronus would be.

Narrator Georgina starts her story at the beginning. That is, her birth, on a small farm in Ohio a few years before the start of the Civil War. Through her life we, as readers, get to witness those events that shaped America’s history, such as slavery and the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, and the Women’s Suffrage movement. Even World War I is mentioned briefly near the end. In his book, Fleischman also brings up topics not often discussed in children’s books, such as the abolitionists, atheism, and women’s rights. Turns out, this book that I had so loved as a child, is much more complex than I ever remember it being, and I have to credit Fleischman for trusting children enough to expose them to these very grown-up ideas.

Base’s illustrations are incredibly detailed and different types of clues are utilized throughout the book, from hidden messages to Morse code. The final answer, along with the answer to all of the clues and secret messages, issealed at the end of the book. While the reader could just look at the answer right away, they are encouraged to solve the mystery first.

I first became familiar with this elaborate picture and puzzle book as a 4th grader when my teacher read it to our class and challenged all of us to figure it out. It’s impossible for me to even estimate how many hours I spent pouring over the pages, attempting to decipher the clues. I can’t remember what the answer ended up being, I just know that my 9-year-old self was unsuccessful. As an adult, though, I now kind of want to go back and try again and see if age has given me any more wisdom.

As indicated by the title, this book is actually a collection of shorter stories, four in total, each with its own lesson to be learned (although, some are a little more obvious than others). It is the title story that has the most blatant message: Sneetches are big yellow creatures, some of whom have green stars on their bellies. It is understood that Sneetches with stars are better than those without, and with the help of the Sneetches, children will learn an important lesson in discrimination and racism.

The second story, The Zax, teaches children about the importance of compromise, as the North-going Zax and the South-going Zax find themselves at a permanent standstill because of their stubbornness. “Too Many Daves” is about a mother who named all of her children Dave, which causes obvious confusion from the start. The lesson in this one is a little harder to find, although it could be argued it is about individuality. In “What Was I Scared Of?”, the narrator continually comes across a pair of empty green pants and he becomes terrified of them. In the end, he learns that the pants are just as scared of him as he is of them, teaching children not to be afraid of things we don’t know or understand.