Rating: 
Summary: Paramount (here meaning "superior") story...
Review: Don't be misled by reviewers who insist on either comparing this series to Harry Potter or dismissing it as "too scary" or politically incorrect for children. Adult readers who find the author's periodic definitions of big words annoying or insulting are forgetting that they're not the target audience. The premise here--that bad things keep happening to good children--is dealt with fairly tongue-in-cheek, and though it would seem that there's no one in the world to save the Baudelaire children from their presumed fate, it's they themselves who will come to their own rescue (and they do)! Funny, witty, and charmingly different from much of what's being published for kids now.
Rating: 
Summary: A bad beggining for a bad book.
Review: The author has tried, unsecessfully tried to emulate the writers like J.K. Rowling and Enid Blyton. They constantly use words which are dificult for kids to understand, and then feel that they need to explain it. (not very well.) The plot and characters aren't bad, but the author is patronising to younger childeren in the way he structures and writes the book. I do not recommend it too anybody of any age. A bad read
Rating: 
Summary: An Awesome adventure!
Review: My Dad and I got this book yesterday and I finished reading it today. Violet (about 14 yr. old), Klaus (about 10 yr. old) and Sunny Baudelaire (about 2 yr. old) get into a lot of mischief trying to figure out how their new guardian father, Count Olaf, is trying to steel their inherited fortune. The children's real Father and Mother died in a bonfire in the beginning of the story. The Baudelaire's use their neighbor's (Justice Strauss) marriage law books from her library to try to stop the Count. I hope you love the interesting ending, have a fun time reading! I will start reading book two soon!
Rating:
Summary: The Bad Beginning The Best Book
Review: I read the Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket. I am sorry to say that the book you are reading about is unpleasant in some ways. But the book is a thriller. This is how it begins: The three Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and their baby sister, Sunny, were strolling along the beach when they were interrupted by Mr.Poe (a friend of their parents). Mr.Poe came to them and said, Your parents died in a fire. So the children stayed with Mr.Poe until they could find someone to look after them. Finally, one day Mr.Poe said " You will be sent to Count Olf your third cousin." When they got to his house they looked at it in disgust because it is very old, and dirty. The children were told to do chores, and he gave them cold breakfast and he was never home (remember that the children were very rich). The only thing Count Olf ever wanted was their money. But you have to read the book to find out if he gets their money or not. I recommend this book to 10- 12 year olds.
Rating:
Summary: Not That Sad but GOOD
Review: The Bad Begining is a great first book in the series. The characters are well described. Some parts are depressing but for the most part it's hunorous. Once you read it I gurantee you'll want to read the sequel!!
Rating:
Summary: Too delicious!
Review: I came to this series as a result of an interview with the author that I read in Publishers Weekly. Intrigued, I ordered the first three books. I loved them. They are purportedly children's books but the author has a wicked sense of humor, and includes references that only adults would recognize. (For example, two of the three children are named Sunny and Klaus. Gee, that makes me think about some real-life wicked goings-on.)Aside from everything else, these children actually come alive; they're inventive, clever and resourceful. They also suffer at the hands of their wonderfully conceived evil uncle Count Olaf. I've passed these books along to a number of children who gobbled them up as avidly as I did--which proves that a good book knows no age barriers. This series is pure pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: The Bad Beginning
Review: Here's the premise: mix the Boxcar Children's plucky orphans with the black humor and neo-Victorian imagery of Edward Gory. The Boxcar children, for those who don't know, is a successful series from the 50's about plucky orphaned brothers and sisters who stick together to overcome adversity. Gory is probably most widely know for his opening credits for the PBS Mystery series a few years back. Funny idea. Why then is the "book the first" of this series so unredeemably bad (and here bad is a word that denotes worse than mediocre)? One reason, obviously enough, is that it is not written by Edward Gory, despite illustrations intended to be a copyright infringement away Gory's signature art, right down to the sad, round-faced kids. What is most critically missing is Gory's whimsy. For example, early in the book the children's parents are killed, but not by a herd of stampeding pachyderms or an errant zeppelin or a nameless dread from under the stairs, but when their house catches on fire. Does that sound funny? It isn't particularly. By keeping us distant from his characters who meet cruel fate, Gory makes us squirm when we laugh at their terrible disasters. But in this book, the author intentionally or otherwise leads us sympathize with the loyal children who mourn their parents and cry through the night at the lovelessness of their world. The book quickly becomes a strange sermon where the message is not just that bad things can happen to good people, but that bad things must happen to good people. And the ceaseless litany of badness is implausible and tiresome, people and institutions behaving unrealistically and illogically. At the end of the story, the children's hope of a happy life is dashed and the only explanation seems to be that the editors wanted to preserve the possibility of a second book. I doubt that this nihilistic universe is one that most parent would want to introduce to their children, although the effect is probably accidental. The book has the feel of something written by committee, right down to the innominate author. It will be interesting to see is whether Scholastic's considerable credibility with the younger set and a good concept can make up for this poor execution.
Rating:
Summary: The Bad Beginning!
Review: I thought this book was really good. This book is very interesting because it has a lot of scaringly things in it. These three poor children were living a happy life, they had everything they wanted but one day they found out the bad news. The bad news was that there parents were killed in a fire, and they had to go live with there uncle who was very wierd and mean to the three children. The three children didnt even know this uncle of theres they didn't even know that he exsisted. If you like scary or terriable things then you should read this book, becauase you'll love it a lot if thats what you like. But if you like peacful and things that make you happy then you'll hate this book. I like peacful kinds of books but i didn't know that it would be this owful, but i still liked it a lot because it was also like a mystery to. They had to find something out without letting there so called father know. If you like books that make you fall out of your seet then you should go out right know and get this book. You'll love it!!
Rating:
Summary: The Bad Beginning
Review: This was a good book. It was about three unluckie children. Thier names were Violet,Klaus,and Sunny. The first unluckie thing that happend to them is thier house and parents were killed in a fire when the kids were at the beach. Then they were sent to live with a mean man that they had never met. This man made the children do very hard things. Like one day he had his friends over and the children had to make dinner for 10 people.But the olny reason that the mean man was keeping the children was so that he could take the fortune that the kid's parents left. Will he ever get the money,or will he be left pennyless?
Rating:
Summary: This book is not meant to be taken seriously
Review: My sons (ages 11 and 9)loved this book. I read it aloud to my youngest and the oldest wanted to listen. We're now 3/4 of the way through the second book, and they love it just as much. Why? Because they know it's not meant to be taken seriously. I find it amusing that one reviewer here who was seeking something for her child between Harry Potter books was outraged that Klaus is struck by Count Olaf. That doesn't seem nearly as disturbing as when one of the Harry Potter characters cuts off his own hand and slits Harry's after a teen is murdered in the last Potter book. Although the children in The Bad Beginning get into dire circumstances, this book has an unmistakable sense of humor and is more along the lines of the unfortunate childhoods in all of Dickens's novels.
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