Category: Lemony Snicket

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator (Book 6)

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator (Book 6) by Lemony Snicket
  • Illustrated by: Brett Helquist
  • Number of Pages: 259
  • Cool Words: Ersatz, extreme, curious

There is nothing in this book, but misery. There is something mysterious about the Baudelaire’s new caretaker, Esme. She seems nice, but is she?

This book was not one of my favourites in the series. It was very slow. The adventure didn’t start until half way through. Still, I would recommend this book to Anneanne, because I think she will get surprised. I would also recommend it to people who want to read the rest of the series because Lemony Snicket usually links the books to the next one so that most of the next books beginning will mention the previous book.

I was a little bit disappointed, but I will keep reading the series.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy (Book 5)

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
  • Illustrated by: Brett Helquist
  • Number of Pages: 221
  • Cool Words: Austere

This book is about the three Baudelaire children who are made to go to a boarding school called Prufrock Prep. When they get there, they have to stay in the ‘orphans shack’ which is a really damp, dark and awful place. The academy is beautiful except for the orphans shack which is not even in the school grounds. There are two teachers that are nice, but the other teachers are really strict and mean. The Vice Principle, Nero, is a horrible person and reminded me a little bit of Trunchbull from Matilda.

Count Olaf is also there, as usual, but this time he is pretending to be the gym teacher Mr Ghengis. The children make a plan to escape with their friends, but they get caught and Nero expels the Baudelaire’s and makes their friends work in the cafeteria.

This was the best book in the series so far, because it was more suspenseful than any of the others. I knew that Count Olaf would appear, but I couldn’t guess who he was pretending to be until almost the end of the book. Because I couldn’t guess, I kept suspecting all the different teachers of being the Count which made the reading really fun!

I wouldn’t recommend this book to people who don’t like it when teachers are mean. Some of my classmates might find it a bit scary or upsetting. So maybe this book is for older kids, maybe 8 years and older.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill (Book 4)

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket
  • Illustrated by: Brett Helquist
  • Number of Pages: 221
  • Cool Words: Hypnotized, Scrawny, Advanced Ocular Science

In this book, the Baudelaire children stay in Paltryville with Foreman Flacutono. The foreman is not very nice, calls the children ‘orphans’ and forces them to work in the lumber mill. At least there is Charles, who is very kind to them.

The children work really hard and only get one packet of chewing gum for lunch, which was a bit upsetting, because I imagined how bad that would be if it happened to me. The Foreman also keeps tripping Klaus up so that he breaks his glasses. And once he does he has to go to the eye doctor, which is in a building that is shaped like Count Olaf’s symbol and has a doctor inside who hypnotises people. Count Olaf works in the building as ‘Shirley’ the receptionist which is really funny.

When I first started this book, I didn’t think it was the best in the series, but then it got better and better. It was just that in this book, the adventure started in the middle, so the beginning was a bit slow.

Like the other books in the series, it is best to read this after you’ve read the previous ones otherwise you wont find it as funny, because when Count Olaf appears for example, you wont know him from before. So I would recommend this book to people who like the previous books in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window (Book 3)

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
  • Illustrated by: Brett Helquist
  • Number of Pages: 214
  • Cool Words: staggered, tiller, valuable, unbearable

In book three of the series, Violet, Klaus and Sunny are sent to live with their aunt Josephine. She doesn’t turn on the stove or anything hot because she is afraid that the house may fall down into the lake where she lost Ike (her husband). So she only makes cold food, like cucumber soup which the kids hate!

This story is very creepy and is full of leeches! Count Olaf appears again and this time he is pretending to be Captain Sham and has a wooden leg (which is really funny!). The book was a little bit slower than the first two books, but I still really enjoyed it.

I would recommend this book to Mathew and Darcy and other people who read the first books. I’m not sure if you would really enjoy this without having read the first books.