Kids' Books Come to Life

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 2001
Though J.K. Rowling's 1997 book had already sold hundreds of thousands of copies by the time Hollywood released its first Potter film, Sorcerer's Stone turned the boy wizard into an international pop icon virtually overnight. The movie earned close to $1 billion at the box office and guaranteed that the remaining books in the series would find their way to the big screen. The last installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II, is expected to be released in the summer of 2011.

• Read TIME's review of "Where the Wild Things Are"