Sequels have been on my mind a lot lately. The world is full of them, and some are pretty amazing. The best sequels strike that perfect balance between building on the larger conflict in the first book and providing a satisfying stand-alone story that holds up even if you’ve never read Book 1.

As I’m working on my own sequel, I’ve been looking at how other authors have handled the start of Book 2. How do they bring the reader into the next installment in the adventure? How do they give the story a different — but not too different — feel? What techniques do they use?

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Repeat the format used in the first book: The first chapters of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling follow a similar pattern as the beginning of Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone: Harry is at home with the Dursleys, being mistreated. Then he gets an ominous, mysterious warning that he doesn’t understand. Then we get to see Ron do something funny in typical Ron fashion.
• Immediately tighten the screws: Katniss barely gets a chance to settle in at home after surviving the Hunger Games when President Snow shows up to threaten her in the first few chapters of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson immediately puts the protagonist in peril as well, with Elisa facing assassination attempts and a coup pretty much from chapter one.
• Introduce a new main character or plotline, which is somehow connected to the characters and events in Book 1: Lyra is nowhere in sight in the first pages of The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (the sequel to The Golden Compass). Instead, we meet Will, who’s out to solve the mystery of his missing father while on the run from some bad guys. Eventually he stumbles into Lyra’s world and their stories intertwine.
• Hand-off to the next generation: In Scumble by Ingrid Law, the protagonist, Ledger, is a younger cousin of the main character, Mibb, from Savvy, the first book in the series. They exist in the same universe of magical realism, but Mibb has passed the baton to Ledger for Book 2.