The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events #1)

Reader reviewed by Anjanie

The Bad Begining is the begining of a series of extremly unfortunate events. The Bauldelaire children had everything they ever wanted until that fateful day when their entire mansion burned to the ground taking thier parents too. Now Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are by themselves in the cold cruel world and they will have to learn to survive on their own. They get sent Count Olaf; a terrible and greedy person who only cares to get his hands on the Bauldelaire fortune. He comes up with a great skeem but is dissapointed when the children out smart him. He and his henchman escape just in time. But the Bauldelaires know he'll be back again. It's just a matter of time. I love this book because of the way Lemony Sniket compares their lives to our lives. If you think this story is bad, then you shouldn't read any more books from this series. The Bauldelairs don't know it but it only goes downhill from here.

Reader reviewed by Susan/Mrs.Fleming's Class

In the beginning, the author, Lemony Snicket, doesn't encourage you to read this book. It's strange, but the book is really good. When he is trying to describe something someone felt like, he would compare it to your life so you would get the feeling of it.

This is the first book of the series of unfortunet events. When their parents die, they get switched around from family to family-and sometimes people who they didn't know. In this one, they go to Count Olaf's place. Olaf is a person with instead of two short eybrows, has one, long one. His eyes go a glassy when he looks at the orphans and he has a tattoo of an eye on his ankle.He tries to get their fortuneby marrying Violet in a so called "play". But Violet outsmarts him by signing with her left hand instead of his right one.

I still wonder how the fire that killed their parents started though...