Audience: The nastiest word in the series is "cakesniffer" so you don't have to worry about language or sexual content. However, Count Olaf and his henchmen do get drunk a lot and the books are very dark for young readers. So I would recommend sixth grade and up.
The Story: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire lose their parents and their mansion in a horrible fire. They inherit an extensive fortune from their parents, but the evil Count Olaf wants it for himself. He will stoop to any low and wear any ridiculous disguise in order to get it.
What makes it great?
Disclaimer--the orphans never do get a happy ending. In every book you think "Yes! This is the one where fortunate events are going to happen" and then . . . they don't. So know before you start that these books are not happy. They just aren't. But they ARE brilliant, and if you go into them just planning to enjoy Lemony Snicket's awesome writing and the horribly wonderful characters and bizarre plot twists, then I believe you really will.
I love the way Lemony Snicket portrays himself as a man on the run and has to leave his research about the Baudelaires in weird places for his editor to trck down. I also love the series because it taught me so much cool vocab and so many strange facts. But the best part of the series is the villains, from Count Olaf to Principal Nero to Esme with the dangerous stiletto heels. Villain perfection.
P.S. if you enjoy this series go on to YouTube and watch the Arthur episode about Fern and Persimmony Glitchet. It's very funny. Fern writes to Persimonny Glitchet (the Lemony Snicket of Arthur), who gives her top secret writing advice to use a fake name when she writes her stories so people will tell her what they really think. She writes a story called "Happy Happenings", which is a lot like "A Series of Unfortunate Events" except NOTHING bad happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment