Oh Harriet, how delightful your every adventure is. And Wilbur! Such unexpected developments in your giant fighting powers! And Ursula, for real? a Harpster? Hilarious! ( )

A fabulous book in a fabulous series. ( )

A chipmunk salesman attempts to sell Harriet some magic beans while she's cliff-diving; Mumfrey, in annoyance, eats one of the beans, leading to an upset tummy, and, the next morning....a giant beanstalk. Which they climb, of course, and discover a giant's cloud house snagged at the top. The giant is out, but Harriet and Mumfrey discover Strings, a "harpster" (half-hamster, half-harp) and an oversized goose, both of whom they decide to free. When the giant returns, he infuriates Harriet further with his terrible rhymes.

Harriet 1, Giant 0. Strings gets to start her metal band. And the cliff-diving magic comes in handy during the beanstalk exit. ( )

This is a super-cute retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk featuring everyone's favorite hamster princess. In this one, we get to see her friends being more useful than they sometimes are, which is nice. (Not that Harriet couldn't have gotten herself out of trouble entirely on her own. Somehow.)

I appreciate the humor in this series: it's aimed at middle grade readers, but it still equally funny to adults. I highly recommend this series to anyone who thinks it might be their kind of book. ( )

After Ratpunzel, Harriet’s next adventure involves magic beans, a giant bunny and a hamster who wants to form a band.

There is something very soothing about making tea. You have to concentrate on the whole process, and then you have tea. Even someone as decisive as Harriet had to make tea sometimes and think things through. ( )