Rating: 
Summary: Horrible Story
Review: I teach and work with children, and I fail to see any productive purpose in scaring children with the idea of both their parents dying in a fire and then having those children ending up with a distant relative who emotionally and physically abuses them, with strong hints of adults wanting to inflict sexual abuse on the children, and the kids being threatened with murder to top it off.
The sickness of the content by far overpowers the author's evident talent at writing. The book left me with a stomachache for all the children that will have to endure being introduced to this book and being drawn in by the author's craft, and in response have to live with new inner turmoil.
Rating: 
Summary: The Bad Begining
Review: The book I'm going to tell you about is, called A Series of Unfortunate Events, the author of this series is Lemony Snicket. This is a fiction story and is a series of about 10 books. This story is about three little kids who have to go through a lot because of their misfortune. I'm only going to tell you about the first book. The first book is called The Bad Beginning and this book is about how the children loose their parents in a terrible fire, and that's where the misfortune began. Little by little their lives began to change into one big mess. Because of the tragic death of their parents they have to move in with a mysterious uncle who likes to mistreat them and threatens to have the youngest one killed if the oldest one disagrees to marry him. But do not be alarmed because the oldest one, Vilot (who loves to invent things) thinks of a brilliant plan that saves the youngest one (Sunny, who loves to nibble on things) and the middle child, Klaus (who loves to read) from the Evil clutches of their so called (uncle Olaf).
I love this book and if you were to read it I guarantee you'll love it too. I think the book message is even though you are having hard times, there's always a bright side and it might not seem like there is but you can always do the best to find it.
If I were to give my opinion on this book I would say that this is the best book to read if you're into mystery books, and if you are then this is the book for you. I absolutely love this book, it's my all time favorite, so I'm definitely going to give this book 10/10, and a 5 star review. I recommend this book to anyone who's willing to read it. It's the best!!
Rating:
Summary: Chuck it Out the Window
Review: I must say after having made myself stomach the first 3 I just had to chuck the 4th right out the window in mid-read. While I must admit that the first book had it's own original plot and was entertaining enough, the rest of the books seemed to have the exact same plot with a few certain character name changes. All that seemed to happen was: the children went to a new relative (whether they got on with the relative or not seemed irrelavent), Count Olaf followed them and disguised himself and had yet another "ingenious" plot to take the children's inheritence, he was folied, for some reason or another the children had to leave their newest gaurdian and find another. Perhaps Snicket came up with new plots to follow the rest of the books however, I just couldn't take anymore. As for Snicket's continual interruptance of the story to "warn the reader" of the unfortunate events coming up, while it was cute and even creative at first it got old and rather annoying very quickly to the point where I felt like tearing out those specific pages. I can not see how people equate these books with the likes of Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, His Dark Materials, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc, which are obviously on a much higher level.
Rating:
Summary: The Bad Beginning to an awesome series
Review: The aweful, terrible, horrendous, and just plain bad beginning of this series could not get any better! The tale is a mockery of all those sickeningly sweet childrens tales. Everything in the story goes wrong, everyhting that can go wrong does. With the confert of the children always sticking together. The three children's parent's die, and they have to go through "bad guys" who watch over then and who want to seal their fortune. This is a wtory for older children who are tired of happy happy happy stories. Children who take things copletely seriously and are very worried about the cildren wouldn't liek this book, but might when they are older. I would recomend this book for anyone over 8. And that's all folks!
Rating:
Summary: The Mysterious and Wondrous Book
Review: Lemony Snicket is a fantastic author. In his book, The Bad Beginning, he introduces a handful of suspicious, creepy, curious, intelligent, and ultimately, heart-warming characters. Both Violet and Klaus, the two older Baudelaire orphans are good role-models for little Sunny, their baby sister. Despite their parents dying, the children are still doing well - that is of course until they meet Count Olaf, an evil relative who is not only rude and conniving, but he is also trying to steal the Baudelaire fortune (the money that the orphans will inherit from their deceased parents).People should read whatever they want, but this is an extraordinary book, and I highly recommend it. Books like this are mysterious and wondrous. At the end of each chapter it will keep you wondering what happened next! For instance, at the end of chapter eight, when Klaus and Violet are looking for Sunny, Count Olaf appears in the doorway to their room and smirks menacingly. Then the chapter ends, leaving the reader wondering what will happen next. Everybody can like this book, especially if they like mystery and suspense and little kids getting tortured (but I hope no one likes little kids getting tortured!) Stuff like that is why I like this book. This book is good for all ages, but I would highly recommend it for ages 11 and up.
Rating: 
Summary: What an introduction to this sad series!
Review: Three Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, are playing on the beach when their life, as they do not know as of yet, takes a turn for the worst. The family banker, Mr. Poe, informs them that their parents have been killed in a fire, along with all their family belongings. Ushered immeadiately to the home of a distant relative, and their soon-to-be enemy, Count Olaf, they continue living. And the fact that their parents are dead is just the least of their problems. They learn that Olaf is trying without hesitation to get at their enormous fortune which was left behind by their late mother and father. So, as the children continue to be the victims of a terrible man's plots, they can do nothing but think up ways to get out of their situation. They seem to be a good team, for Sunny, the baby, loves to bite, Klaus, the middle child, loves to read, and Violet, the eldest child, loves to invent. Then one day Olaf apologizes for his behavior to the children, and asks them to participate in his play, The Marvelous Marriage. In this play, Olaf secretly plans to marry Violet to get hold of the fortune. How the play and the rest of the book turns out is yours to find out, and I hope you do read this book. It is quite good, despite it being part of a "depressing" series.
Rating:
Summary: I loved The Bad Beginning!
Review: I loved The Bad Beginning, the first book in
A Series of Unfortunate Events. I don't like many books! If you like stories with happy endings and beginnings put this book down immediately. This story has no happy beginning or ending.
The main characters are Violet, Klaus, Sunny, and Count Olaf. The Baudelaire kids ( Violet, Klaus, Sunny ) were very rich. One day their parents died in a fire. They were then raised by Count Olaf. Count Olaf, who is a mean, horrible man, he tries to steal the baudelair fortune. There is a whole series of these books. I'm going to try and read all of them.
Rating:
Summary: What is this telling our kids?
Review: I am a writer and I can tell you that this series is not a good one for kids. Kids need to be taught that through hard work and dedication, happy endings are usually to follow. I don't understand what this series of childrens books is wanting to teach. Books are meant to teach lessons, such as life lessons and morals. This series of childrens books teaches that no matter how hard you try, you will always fail.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Beginning of a Great Series!
Review: For a couple of years I have been hearing about a series of Young Adult books written by Lemony Snicket. It wasn't until I taught a 7th grade Language Arts class this year that I was introduced to the first book when one of my students encouraged me to begin reading this series by lending me the first book, The Bad Beginning. I felt compelled to read it immediately and was happy to tell both this student and others, including teachers how much I loved the first book and couldn't wait to continue reading the series. And having just finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I did marvel at how children's and young adult books have changed over the years. Gone are some of the very sweet stories I was used to and found them replaced with child wizards filled with angst and a group of siblings coping with being orphans as well as villains and terrible events in their young lives. The blurb on the back of The Bad Beginning warns readers that the book they are holding is extremely unpleasant. Readers are also warned that the book will reveal an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children, known as the Baudelaires. And a sorry tale this book does tell although the reader is rooting that these children will overcome whatever befalls them. It is a credit to the author that despite the unhappy events described there is a sense of fun and some very quick thinking on the parts of the children. I did find this a fast and most enjoyable read. Particularly clever was the author's explanation of words and emotions that most children would not know. Some of the explanations found me even laughing despite the serious nature of the Baudelaire children's dilemmas. I also marveled at how Lemony Snicket so easily puts you right into these children's world. And I particularly loved the character of each child and their own inventiveness for getting them out of trouble. And the villainous Count Olaf who quickly becomes the children's nemesis is just devilish enough to entice you to continue reading. I recently finished the last book so far in the series, The Slippery Slope, and am now eagerly waiting for the next book to be published. And as if that wasn't enough I have just learned that a movie from this series with Jude Law as Lemony Snicket and Jim Carrey as Count Olaf will be coming to the silver screen shortly. Like other treasured series that children and adults alike can look forward to and remember, I predict the series of unfortunate events will have a long and happy future.
Rating:
Summary: I Don't Get It
Review: I know that this is a childrens book but some of my friends thought that I might enjoy it so I read it and guess what I hated it. I can understand how children would enjoy it because it adds to their limited vocabulary but I think that there are so many books that would be better for children to read such as Old Yeller or anything by the author Avi especially Poppy. They are such better books that children actually tend to like a lot more than adults tend to think. I would only recommend this to children ages 12 and under because if you are any older than that the humor and story may not pull you in. I hope that this review has been helpful to you!
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