Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second of Joanne Rowling's Harry Potter stories and, unlike many sequels, it is as good as its predecessor.

Harry Potter is an eleven-year-old wizard who spends his early life, unaware of his powers, living with his cruel uncle and aunt and grotesque cousin. Only when he is offered a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry does his life improve. Hogwarts is a creation of genius, allowing Joanne Rowling to combine her story about magic with all the classic ingredients of the best school stories, not least an inspired school game, Quidditch, which gives rise to some of her funniest and most exciting passages. But where the Harry Potter books move into a class above the general run is in their handling of fear and loss. The emotional heart of the first book lies in Harry's longing for the parents he never knew. In a similarly powerful passage here, Dumbledore, a great wizard and Hogwarts' headmaster, explains that: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

The ingredients of Rowling's success are traditional - strong plots, engaging characters, excellent jokes and a moral message which flows naturally from the story. The Harry Potter stories will join that small group of children's books which are read and re-read into adulthood. I imagine that the number of readers waiting impatiently for the next instalment grows by the day.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret by Joanne Rowling

256pp, Bloomsbury, £10.99

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