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Living Section of the San Bernardino SUN December 26, 2004 Issue 
The Bad Beginning: A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket HarperCollins, 1999 
Hooked
on Lemony Snicket Children's books are hot, especially with adults. Celebrities are writing them, my friends and neighbors are writing them, and those who are not writing them are reading them. The Harry Potter books are as big a hit with adults as they are with children. "The Polar Express" is still a favorite with adults. I am one of those parents who read it to our children when it first came out in 1985 and although our children have grown up, still sneak a read of it. Lately however, the adventures of Harry Potter have been eclipsed by the misadventures of the Baudelaire siblings described in a series of books by Lemony Snicket. This of course is a pseudonym and what a great one! It is said that the identity of Lemony Snicket is a mystery. But those intrepid sleuths - librarians -have been able to discover the author's true identity and now he speaks and autographs his books at all sorts of library conferences and events. “The Bad Beginning: A Series of Unfortunate Events” is the first book that sets the scene for the misadventures of the three children. “I’m sorry too say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant,” warns the author in a letter to the reader printed on the book’s back cover. “If you are interested in stories with happy endings,” Lemony Snicket continues the warning with the first line in Chapter One, “you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.” But in spite of all that, the story is absolutely riveting and strangely, at book’s end we feel uplifted instead of depressed. The Baudelaire children – Violet, fourteen, Klaus twelve, and Sunny, an infant “scarcely larger than a boot” – live with their parents in a mansion in the center of an unnamed city that is part futuristic and modern and part reminiscent of the London of Charles Dickens. Violet likes to invent things and her head is full of “images of pulleys, levers, and gears.” Klaus loves to read and is particularly interested in the lives of animals and other creatures. His one dream is to read all the books in his parents’ vast library. Baby Sunny loves to bite with her four very sharp teeth anything that comes her way. Alas, this idyllic life of the Baudelaire children comes quickly to an end when their parents die in a fire that also reduces their mansion to cinders. The orphans have to go and live with a distant relative in his filthy and sinister house. Count Olaf himself is a slothful miser that reminded me of Fagin in Dickens’ “Oliver Twist.” He mistreats the children and schemes to get his hands on their fortune. But the Baudelaire orphans are very resourceful, knowledgeable and intelligent and manage to foil the evil uncle’s plans. Books are always there to help them. “All his life,” writes the author, “Klaus had believed that if you read enough books you could solve any problem.” Lemony Snicket is a master wordsmith. Along with weaving a captivating tale, he manages to pass on to his readers numerous lessons. Frequently he defines words without being overbearing or didactic, thus, increasing the vocabulary of his your readers. The Baudelaire children exemplify a knack for survival and ability to think critically. Altogether there are subtle depths and complexities in the book that many do not associate with children’s books. This is only the first book in a series of nine. Although the current film, based on the first three Lemony Snicket books is top grossing at the box office, it is at best disappointing and lackluster. The books are infinitely more engaging. This may be because children’s literature is complex and perplexing and a film version of any book often confines the reader’s imagination to that of the filmmaker. Fairytales such as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Cinderella” have layers and layers of meaning. Although children’s literature is taught at most universities, it is usually students in the graduate Library and Information Science programs that take these courses. It is still a wide-open field. This is a perfect opportunity for someone to research the reasons for the current popularity of children’s books. Is it because they capture the eternal child in all of us, is it nostalgia for our childhood, or is it because we’ve grown simpleminded and assume that children’s books are also that? Ophelia Georgiev Roop Library Director San Bernardino Public Library |
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