The adventure begins when four children open a door in the wardrobe and enter the world of Narnia. This is the classic tale of the four children Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, who discover and travel in the land of Narnia. The children from London stumble through the back of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house and discover the magic world beyond. The children meet Aslan, the Great Lion, and help him triumph over the White Witch who has cursed the land with eternal winter. After their experience, the lives of the children are forever changed.

DiCamillo has written a tale where she explores the nature of love, hope and forgiveness. Despereaux Tilling, the new baby, is different from the other mice. The first book relates Despereaux's sad story, in which he falls in love with the Princess Pea and meets his cruel fate of being banished to live in the dungeon with the rats.
The second book introduces another character that differs from his peers. Chiaroscuro is a rat that loves the light and hates the dark dungeon. His love of light causes him to end up in the Queen's soup.
The third book describes a young peasant girl named Miggery Sow, who has huge cauliflower ears. All Miggery dreams about is wearing the crown of the Princess Pea.
The fourth book returns to the dungeon-bound Despereaux and connects the lives of the mouse, the rat, the girl and the princess in the resolution of the plot.
This book won the Newbery Medal in 2004.

A retelling of the classic tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," this is a resource to use in the study and discussion of superstition. Pattou's writing places readers between myth and fantasy in this fairy tale that involves magic, superstition and suspense. Many universal themes are dealt with in this story. Family dynamics and how they are influenced by individual and family values are most evident. Rose is a female explorer, which makes this story interesting because most explorers are male.

Hale has written an original tale similar to the Grimm's fairy tale of the princess who became a goose girl before she could become queen. Anodori, Crown Princess of Kildenree (a.k.a. Ani), spends her first years under her aunt's guidance learning to communicate with animals, but she is never comfortable speaking with people. When her silver-tongued lady-in-waiting leads a mutiny during Ani's journey to be married in a foreign land, Ani is helpless and cannot persuade anyone to assist her. Becoming a goose girl for the king, Ani eventually uses her own special, nearly magical powers to find her way to her destiny. Ani is a girl who must find her own unusual talents before she becomes queen of the people she has made her own.

Although Avi has written a modern fable for our times, elements from classic fairy tales are prevalent. The Snail is a reader, so he knows that everyone leaves on a journey to find adventure. Some insights about life in general unfold: "here" and "there" are not much different; while getting lost is easy, it is finding oneself that is hard; whether rushing or going slowly, one still arrives; and it is more important to look at the world with one's heart than just with one's eyes. The book plays on the words "beginning" and "end." Illustrated by the word play is the paradox that one has to leave home to find home.