Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The second year at Hogwarts keeps the playful tone of the first book and adds a proper whodunit: attacks inside the school push Harry and his friends to investigate. It is as much fun as its predecessor, and for some readers part of its appeal today is nostalgia. A comfortable, mysterious adventure for young readers and for adults revisiting the series.

Worth knowing Published in July 1998, a year after the first book, it won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize just as its predecessor had. Rowling has said it holds clues that matter much later in the series, so details that look like part of a self-contained school mystery are worth remembering. The 2002 film was Richard Harris’s last as Dumbledore; he died a few weeks before its release.

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