What it is: Like Peter and the Wolf, this is a children’s story that also serves as an introduction to the orchestra. Snicket, you may recall, is the author of the bestselling Series of Unfortunate Events. Using his characteristic desert-dry wit, here he tells the tale of an investigator who comes to check out all the instruments in the orchestra to figure out which one murdered the composer. The suspected instruments all have to explain what they do as they give their alibis. The book includes a CD with Snicket narrating the story while the San Francisco Symphony plays the score.