Children's Book Review Tuesday: The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 1) by Lemony Snicket

Book Title: The Bad Beginning

Series Title: A Series of Unfortunate Events (Book 1)

Author: Lemony Snicket

Publish Date: September 30, 1999

Genre: Children's Fantasy, Humor

Similar Author/Books: The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black

Find It Here: Amazon (affiliate link)

Plot (from Goodreads):  

Dear Reader, 

I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.

In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.

It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing. 

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

Why I Read this Book: I have been wanting to reread this series for a while now.  I saw this book at my local Goodwill and it was in great condition so I picked it up.

Review

I enjoyed rereading this book!  Rereading a book that you read when you are a child is like visiting a friend that you have not seen in a few years.  When I see my friends from high school that I have not talked to in three of four years, I am excited to see them, but I hope that we will be able to get along like we did in high school now that we have both changed some.  When I picked up this book, I was really excited, but I was also nervous.  What if this book was not as good as I remembered it to be and that great memory that I had was tarnished by rereading the book?

This book lived up to those extremely high expectations that I had from reading the book when I was a child.  Lemony Snicket's writing style is cynical, yet completely hilarious.  He has a subtle humor that is difficult to get used to at first, but I quickly remembered my love for it.  After I had begun reading the book again, I remembered parts of the plot, but I could not wait to read the ending.  I am glad that I reread this book.

I believe that this book would be great for children who want to read their first chapter book.  Although some of the vocabulary is advanced, the author has a great way of introducing new words to children by defining them, but not making the child feel uneducated.

Final Statements

Recommended Reading Age: 7 and up

Overall Rating: 5/5