In the perilous Mortmain Mountains, Klaus and Violet Baudelaire meet another well-read person, who helps them try to rescue Sunny from the villainous Count Olaf and his henchmen as they all near "the last safe place."

Lost at sea, the Baudelaire orphans, along with the evil Count Olaf, wash up on the shore of an island populated by an oddly placid group of inhabitants, and they try to decide whether or not they are truly safe.

On the run as suspected murderers, the unlucky Baudelaire orphans find themselves trapped in the Caligari Carnival, where they must masquerade as freaks in order to hide from the evil Count Olaf.

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.

Enter the Old Kingdom, a world of dark secrets and dangerous magic. As a child, Sabriel was sent across the Wall to Ancelstierre to safety. Now eighteen years old, she receives a cryptic and desperate message from her father, the Abhorsen--the magical protector whose task it is to bind and send back to Death those who won't stay Dead. Fiercely determined to help her father, who is perilously trapped in Death, and save him from the sinister Free Magic...

The woeful saga of the Baudelaire orphans continues. Within the chapters of this story, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire encounter a darkened staircase, a red herring, some friends in a dire situation, three mysterious initials, a liar with an evil scheme, a secret passageway, and parsley soda.

When the truffle-hunting dog starts to dig furiously, his master's first reaction is delight at the size of the clump the dog has unearthed; at the going rate, this one truffle might be worth several hundred pounds. Then the dirt falls away to reveal not a precious mushroom but the bones and tendons of what is clearly a human hand. Chief Inspector Wexford tries to piece together events that took place eleven years earlier, a time when someone was...

Four science fiction stories.

When little fish Kevin is swept up in a net and taken from his home in the vast oceans to the small glass fish tank of a restaurant, he must find a way to escape and make his way back home.

In his quest to be the world's greatest villain, Gru plans to steal the Moon, but he meets his greatest challenge when he adopts three little girls to help him on his mission.