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This time the three Baudelaire siblings find themselves given to 'Aunt Josephine' who is afraid of anything and everything. Afraid of the stove, the phone, doorknobs -- you name it. She is threatened by Count Olaf, who shows up as someone else for the week, and gives into him quite easily. Includes Lake Lachrymose, leeches, sailboats, a storm, and many other things.

Title:	The Wide Window
Author:	Lemony Snicket
Date published:	2000
Genre:	Children's Lit
Series:	A Series of Unfortunate Events, #3
Number of pages:	214
Notes:	Read in less than an hour (at downtown library!)

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Read this fun book in about an hour one night. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny find themselves with a wonderful man who wants them to call him uncle Monty. He is a herpetologist – meaning he studies snakes and has a large room full of them with a library about them at the back of the room. They get to spend a wonderful week with him, each doing exactly what he or she loves. But then – count olaf shows up as the new assistant and has all the adults fooled until too late. More of what is expected from these books – pessimism, humor and dramatic irony.

Title:	The Reptile Room
Author:	Lemony Snicket
Date published:	1999
Genre:	Children's Lit
Series:	A Series of Unfortunate Events, #2
Number of pages:	190 pages

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The first of many. The three Baudelaire siblings – Violet, Klaus, and Sunny – have all sorts of awful things happen to them, but have each other (most of the time) to help survive and find things to enjoy in life. Pessimistic in such a way that it's funny. Wonderful interjections by the author including definitions of words without condescension and warnings of the sadness to come. It is blatantly, bluntly honest – which is refreshing and enjoyable. Because it doesn't have a happy ending, it seems more realistic than many books (although it also seems too sad to be actually real, it is more like life than most happy-go-lucky books).

Title:	The Bad Beginning
Author:	Lemony Snicket
Date published:	1999
Genre:	Children's Lit
Series:	A Series Of Unfortunate Events, #1
Number of pages:	162 pages

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