The Bad Beginning: A Series of Unfortunate Events, 2nd – Snicket Lemony (2012)

Dear reader, there is nothing to be found in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events but misery and despair. You still have time to choose another international best-selling series, but if you insist on discovering the unpleasant adventures of the Baudelaire orphans, proceed with caution. Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent, charming and resourceful children with pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky. In The Bad Beginning, they encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune and cold porridge for breakfast. In the tradition of great storytellers from Dickens to Dahl, this exquisitely dark comedy is literary and irreverent, hilarious and deftly crafted. The series has sold 60 million copies worldwide and been made into a Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey, while a Netflix series starring Neil Patrick Harris is forthcoming. The 13-book sequence continues with The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, The Ersatz Elevator, The Vile Village, The Hostile Hospital, The Carnivorous Carnival, The Slippery Slope, The Grim Grotto, The Penultimate Peril and The End. The four-book All the Wrong Questions series follows a 13-year-old Lemony Snicket through a dangerous and puzzling apprenticeship in a mysterious organisation: Who Could That Be at This Hour?, When Did You Last See Her?, Shouldn’t You Be in School? and Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? Lemony Snicket was born before you and is likely to die before you as well. He grew up near the sea and currently lives beneath it. Brett Helquist was born in Ganado, Arizona, grew up in Orem, Utah, lives in New York City and has illustrated for publications including Cricket magazine and The New York Times.