Rating: 
Summary: Could Have Been 5 Stars
Review: I thought this was a good book, until I read the rest in the series. The more I read this book the more I think that he could have been better. I've read it 4 times and all the rest of the books seemed good. Another thing is that those poor children have been through so much and it's just sad how when everything starts to get better for them, something goes wrong. For example when their parents die they get sent to a "distant relative"; well, personally I think they should have checked background information on Count Olaf.
Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary for the minds of 10-14 yr ols
Review: I work in a middle school and wanted to know what the deal was with Lemony Snicket books. The kids were talking about it all the time talking about clues and references and the vocabulary. There is a waiting list for each of the 9 books at my school. I decided to read the first one. It is a twisted adventure that as the author puts it is truely a "series of misfortunate events". The author writes in a style which draws the reader in by acting as if the books are important documents that the reader has received to keep them safe. His writing also heavily involves literature and historical references which has stimulated my middle school kids to look up Edgar Allen Poe, J.D. Salinger and Richard Gorey. And his use of large words followed up by "which means. . ." is absolutely great for learning at this age. The first time I heard the kids saying "aberrant, which means very very wrong and causing much grief" or "idiosyncrasies, which means an unique habit" I didn't know where they were getting it. Also the writer is a mysterious prop himself. My kids research him on the internet and are constanly trying to find more clues. These books are not just morbid or gothic, they are an interactive experience. If you want a true review of these "series of unfortunate events" DON'T ask adults, ask the kids. Better yet, go to goggle and type in Lemony Snicket.
Rating:
Summary: The Bad Beginning By: india
Review: Lemony Snicket The Bad Beginning is a great book. I give it five stars for three reasons. one, is that it tells some scary stuff which i like to be in all the books i read. two, is that the author tells what he feels and not what the young and new generation want to hear. three, because he's always right one the money with what he wants to say. I recommend this book to people who love to hear about other peoples misery.
Rating:
Summary: Outstandingly sad...
Review: Great, colorful writing that ends badly, badly, badly.The author promises to provide a very sad tale with NO happy ending, and further tempts you to put the book down if you cannot deal with this. This series is possibly geared more towards adults, but if you have a very hearty child, then he or she may be able to withstand this series. Five stars--could hardly be better (except maybe for a happy ending once or twice).
Rating: 
Summary: The Bad Beginning By Lemony Snicket
Review: In this book three children try to escape their evil relitive. Also in this book they have many problems to deal with. They have people who they trust and some they don't. When their relitive trys to marry the oldest child, they try to stop him. Do you think they will stop their relitive in time? If you don't believe anything I just said, read the book and find out for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the first version -- The Banal Beginning
Review: I am pleased to report that Mr. Snicket's first chronicle of the Baudelaire children is suitably bad. Had it been what apparently constitutes "good" these days, I'm sure there would be no need for an endless string of sequels designed to correct everything that is wrong about this volume. That said, I thought this would be the perfect story to read to my 8-year-old niece. I put on my best Tim Curry impression, and commenced reading. Within no more than 50 words, my efforts were rebuffed. My niece, an obvious connoisseur of good books, indicated that she vastly preferred good stories of children with lightning bolts burnt onto their foreheads over repulsive tales of gangly, unshaved men with eyes tattooed to their ankles. Maybe if I had brought in the real Tim Curry (or bought the book-on-tape, as I found out later), it would have gone down a bit easier. So I was left to wallow in the misery of the Baudelaire orphans. Mr. Snicket chronicles the first in what is apparently a series of misadventures involving a trio of young moppets who face disaster at every step. What is their appeal? Besides their inventiveness, their literacy, and, of course, their very sharp teeth, these three children are probably nothing like you, gentle review reader. After all, surely no children ever fantasize about being orphaned and surviving solely by their wits. And what of the hero, Count Olaf? I fear that Mr. Snicket may have been unfair in his characterization of this abundantly talented thespian. Surely, his generosity in extending shelter and entertaining his unfortunate but distant relatives has been misinterpreted after his attempts to bring them fame and additional fortune by including them in his current theatrical production. Truly, I expect that the later chronicles of The Series of Unfortunate Events will vindicate the Count, just as the delightfully pedantic Mr. Snicket is sure to attempt to describe "irony" to his readers. A good thing, too, or how else will they understand the subtexts to the film REALITY BITES, which they will be sure to encounter later in life.
Rating:
Summary: The Series of the Unfortunate Events: the Bad Beggining
Review: This story is about three unlucky children who get adopted. Count Olaf, the man who adopted them, has thought of a plan to try and get the Baudelaire fortune. The three kids are Sunny, the little one, Kluas, who alwas likes to read, and Voilet, the oldest Bauldelaire kid. They are always getting chores to do in the morning from the Count. They think he's up to no good! It's up to the Buadelaire kids to stop his evil plans. I recommend this book if you like unpleasant tales with plots that will never end!
Rating:
Summary: A little bit of everything
Review: I give it five stars because it's funny and it teaches us about life and vocabulary.It teaches us about life by letting us see how horrible it is for the main characters.Also it is a tragic book because their parents die in a fire.It has three very unique characters with a unfortunate story.It's funny because Sunny(a character,age one) uses a funny,different,and weird language.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I ever read
Review: I thought this book was very interesting. I liked how they described the characters. It has alot of new vocabulary. I really enjoyed this book.
Rating: 
Summary: "The Bad Beginning" is just that.
Review: As a fan of the Harry Potter series, Roald Dahl, AND Charles Dickens, I approached this book on the recommendation of several friends who had read and enjoyed it-perhaps thinking I could enjoy the nine Lemony Snicket books while awaiting the fifth Harry Potter book like so many other H. P. fans. Trusting my friends and believing that "50,000 Harry Potter Fans Can't Be Wrong," I decided to give it a try. The notes on the back of the book clearly begin "I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant." Truer words were never spoken! As many others here have pointed out (and even Lemony Snicket himself), there are no happy moments in this book. I understood this before reading it, but thought I might at least enjoy some of the "humor." I laughed once in 162 pages. The humor comes only when the reader can't see how circumstances for the Baudelaire kids could get any worse, and then they do. Perhaps it's unfair to compare this book to Harry Potter, for Harry Potter is everything this book isn't: clever, interesting, absorbing, exciting, well-written, and worthwhile. Snicket's characters are completely one-dimensional. Violet thinks about nothing other than inventing, Klaus is obsessed with reading, and Sunny exists only to babble nonsense words which are not-so-cleverly translated by the author. In addition to translating baby Sunny's words, the author also seems obliged to define every word over six letters-something that is cute and almost funny the first two times, but quickly becomes annoying when he does it on every other page. Besides the Baudelaire kids, we meet boring Mr. Poe: the manager of the kids' deceased parents' estate who never has time to address the kids' problems with their new guardian, Count Olaf. Olaf is pure evil; he drinks too much, abuses the children physically as well as emotionally, and devises an outlandish plot to grab the Baudelaire kids' inherited estate (I won't give it away, but can anyone imagine that such a plan would *actually* work!!??). Olaf's next-door neighbor is the amazingly thick-headed Justice Strauss, a judge who seems to live in her garden. She's kind to the kids, but can't detect that anything is wrong in the filthy, dilapidated house next to hers. Even when the kids explain their troubles to her and ask to look through her law books to figure out Olaf's "sneaky" plan, she doesn't bat an eye. And the kids still love her! I think Snicket underestimates the intelligence of his audience, not only by defining every other word (and I mean that figuratively, not literally...) but also by keeping the plot extremely simple, straightforward, and predictable. The Harry Potter series proved that kids can handle complex storylines and don't need to be spoon fed the meaning of any word with more than three syllables. Having said all this, I read the book in one sitting, something I don't usually do. I suppose my real reason for being unable to put the book down came from my expectation that at any moment, the storyline would "snap" and suddenly become interesting. Having read so many good reviews and heard so many positive things about this book, I was sure that with any turn of the page it would get better. All the way up to the bitter end (and it *is* a bitter end) I kept assuring myself that I would suddenly find myself "enjoying" the book. After all, I had had a similar experience with Harry Potter, in which I found the first twenty pages of the first book completely dull. Somewhere around the fourth chapter of H. P. though, I became hooked. That never happened with Lemony Snicket. Lemony Snicket is unique, and the idea of telling an unhappy, depressing story is a novel one, but I'm afraid the book doesn't live up to the hype. I'm usually easily pleased, but was thoroughly disappointed with "The Bad Beginning." In this case, you CAN judge a book by its cover.
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