Baby Lincoln has had enough of her older sister, Eugenia, telling her what to do and sets out on her own on a journey of self-discovery.

Future anthropologist Francis "Figgrotten" Pauley loves being unique, even if that means having only one friend, and that her puzzling older sister pretends Francis was adopted, until a death changes her perspective.

In this tongue-in-cheek take on classic themes in children's literature, the four Willoughby children set about to become "deserving orphans" after their neglectful parents embark on a treacherous around-the-world adventure, leaving them in the care of an odious nanny.

Accompanied by an eccentric, human-sized rat, Liza embarks on a perilous quest through an underground realm to save her brother Patrick, whose soul has been stolen by the evilest of creatures--the spider-like spindlers.

Catastrophes and misfortune continue to plague the Baudelaire orphans after being sent to live with fearful Aunt Josephine, who offers little protection against Count Olaf's treachery.

In World War II England, orphaned siblings William, Edmund, and Anna are evacuated from London to live in the countryside, where they bounce from home to home in search of someone willing to adopt them permanently.

When the three younger Penderwick sisters go to Maine with Aunt Claire and are separated from oldest sister Rosalind for the first time in their lives, an uncertain Skye is left in charge as the OAP--oldest available Penderwick.

A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.

Under a new government program based on the saying "It takes a village to raise a child," the Baudelaire orphans are adopted by an entire town, with disastrous results.

"In the second book in the Books of Beginning Trilogy, Michael and Emma must track down the Chronicle of Life, while Kate must find a way back to present day from the year 1899"--