July 12, 2004
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning
I read this little diddy over the weekend. The series follows three children, the Baudeliere orphans, whose rich parents die and specify in their will that the children must be taken care of by relatives. The nearest one is Count Olaf, and they are sent to live with him. He turns out to be quite an evil man, who plots find a way to their fortune, which cannot be accessed by the children until the eldest comes of age.
What I like about these books is the whole "nothing is happy" thing. The author warns you that there are no happy endings, and focuses on the bad things. Also, for young readers, the author often explains big words in the context in which they are being used.
What I thought was weird about the book is that sometimes the author explained words that children could most likely figure out while leaving other big words untouched.
These books are definitely for a younger audience. Target would probably be around 2nd grade, perhaps. I don't think they translate as well to an older audience (I often find myself skipping over the vocab "lessons") or skimming a bit. But they are fun, the characters of the children are cute, and I like how the book focuses on their creativity, reading, and intelligence.
A quick little read, and a nice break from less interesting reading (I'll give a review of that later).
Posted by wendytime at July 12, 2004 09:25 AM | TrackBacki thought the vocab lessons were inserting purely for the purpose of being sarcastic. but that's just my take.
Posted by: becky on July 12, 2004 12:12 PMI thought they occurred too often to just be sarcastic.
Posted by: jeri on July 12, 2004 12:20 PMI thought they were ANNOYING, and I hated the absolutely condescending narrator. And the fact that everyone except the Baudelaire children are complete idiots.
I think I may end up liking the movie better just because I won't have to listen to Lemony Snicket talking down to me. (Except of course the IMDB lists Snicket as a character voiced by Jude Law, so maybe I will.)
Posted by: Julie on July 12, 2004 01:27 PMI just read a talk by CS Lewis in which he said that a children's author must never condescend to his audience.
Posted by: Jonathan on July 12, 2004 01:49 PMI took the vocab the same way Becky did and didn't find it too distracting. I did love how dark everything was...
I can't wait for the film.
Posted by: David Seruyange on July 12, 2004 03:52 PM