As I mentioned previously, I am a sucker for nicely packaged and well illustrated books. Recently, I was slightly burned out from reading "serious" works and decided I need a lighter touch. I was tempted by a children's series of all things. Largely because of their packaging and illustrations. The series was the awkwardly titled The Series of Unfortunate Events Series. A series about the three Baudelaire children who are orphaned by a house fire. The fire begins a series of unfortunate events (hence the title) for the children. The books have a sort of tongue in cheek macabre tone. Supposedly dark and cruel but not too much as they are written for children ten and up.
The first book, The Bad Beginning, lays out the story line and covers their first adventure. This adventure involves being adopted by their Uncle, Count Olaf, who treats them very poorly and who is scheming to get his hands on their fortune. I won't spoil the plot any further for those of you who want to read the series.
It is difficult to judge a book like this, as I do not have any children nor am I particularly familiar with books written for children. Perhaps, parents and their children would approach the books differently and thus come to a different conclusion. To me the book seemed rather light and flat for the most part. It certainly has none of the depth and interest of Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia. I suspect that the author did not intend anything but a light hearted story in the guise of a dark one. After all the books are short, easy to read, and relatively inexpensive.
Article comments
1 - Shannon
Kevin, Kevin, Kevin. The thing that's cool about the Lemony Snicket books is their utter lack of the bland conformity and dull, obedient children that populate most literature for young'uns. These kids are frequently more intelligent than the adults who would do them harm, and subversive as well. Like the PowerPuff Girls, adults have been flocking to the Snicket Series in droves because they are funny, well-written and allow us all to harbor the illusion we'd be that cool if we were the kids in the story.
The parenthetical explanations, such as your "rickety" example, are not only a vocabulary-expander for the books' actual audience, but also a stylistic device...read some books from the 1940s and you'll see what I mean...it's just not a style that's much used anymore.
Like "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales", the Snicket series is quite a welcome addition to what, unfortunately, is usually a very dull genre. And if it makes more kids want to read (like the Potter books, Snicket's been taking up much of the NYTimes top 10 lists over the past year+), then yee-haw for that!
2 - samantha
i love this books they are the books in the world and i haven't even read all the books in the world!!!and people say kids aren't suppose to like books but not me i love books every one i love the vile village that is a good on e but i think the misarble mill is the on e too i don't know i just love them to death and every one who sees this comment tell everyone about them so every one will start reading them they are the best i just want to marry lemony snicket but i can't because he has a broken heart from beatrice she most of meant a lot to him i love this sssoooooooooooooooooooooooossssssssosososossosooooooooooooooooooo much ican't stop saying that this is so cool if any one and mean any one from 7-107 you should read this books they are great !!!!!!!!!!
3 - ant
set up a bad beginning website with animations on ! plz
4 - Alex Zamora
You cannot enter the world of Lemony Snicket with the high expectation of reading a Harry Potter or Amulet of Samarkand (my most favorite fantasy book so far) or Chronicles of Narnia. This book is ideal for children who are starting to read books on their own, probably 8 to 11.
5 - umm meow
meoow
6 - roxy
who is the publisher for the book. i love the series and i find it sad for the children.
7 - Thomas King
Oh dear, another person who takes Snickets work at face value. I beg you to read the books again, the same ones again, and do it carefully.
You read it like a child, literally. Look deeper into the words. The definitions are usually a way of hiding subtle, sometimes political, sometimes literary, jokes.
EG:
Mr Poe. Child readers take him as the man who looks after the Baudelaires affairs and carries out their parents wishes. Oh yeah, and coughs a lot.
An older reader, especially one with a bit of useless knowledge, would spot the light-hearted yet subtle joke that is Mr Poe. He coughs. His name is Poe. Got it yet? I'll explain further.
His children are named Edgar and Albert. Still don't get it? Oh dear. Could it be a hidden joke? Huh! Referring top Edgar Allen Poe, the poet with tuberculosis, a disease whose main symptom is coughing blood. Kids miss it, most adults don't. Open your eyes the second time around.
Baudelaire, after Charles Baudelaire, french poet who wrote macarbe poems, critisised others and translated the work of....guess who...Edgar Allen Poe.
I hope you read them again and have fun the second time around....don't expect Shakespeare, they are childrens books, just expect some witty, macarbre humour.
8 - bindia
i love these books! im a high school student and i admit that i dont fancy children's books as much as i used to. Still, i can never pass up an opportunity to buy anything related to A Series of Unfortunate Events. They are just so interesting! There is mystery that people dont often see when they first read the books. Once one gets drawn into the mystery, one cant help but read the books over and over again. I actually do prefer them to Harry Potter books, maybe because they seem more realistic. i know plotting villains and weird secret organizations doesnt seem at all real, but they do appeal to me more. Each time you just cant wait to flip the pages and for a while my younger sister thought Lemony Snicket was actually a real person involved in the book. i love how the author plays everything off an pretends that he too is part of the story. There are endless clues and mysteries.to pass up these books as a child or even an adult would seem crazy to me. i dont think they are flat or dreary.i think if one has the opportunity to read these books then they should definately take it.