I had heard of these books, of course; I saw the movie, and a friend recommended the series to me, so I thought I'd try them. I felt a little silly going around with something so clearly written for younger readers, but a good story is a good story.

The author definitely has something here. In a way, it's the ultimate "orphan story," because bad things just keep happening to the, well, orphans. They're likeable characters, and the consistent unhappy endings to the books give the impression that you're not done reading yet, making the books almost addictive. I considered finishing the series - fourteen books, I believe - just to see them get what I would hope would be a happy ending (since the series does apparently have a definitive end, and I know the kids don't die because occasionally the books reference "years later"). There's also some humor, which I appreciate, and the gloom of the books is done in sort of a fun way.

The main thing that keeps me from endorsing these books more heavily is that the misfortune of the orphans seems to rely heavily on adults who are thick to the point of idiocy and repeatedly ignore the children. I realize that oblivious adults are a staple of kids' books in some ways, but the older kids here are twelve and fourteen. Fourteen is an age wherein people tend to listen to you when you say something like, "Help, we've been kidnapped!" Especially when you are not prone to jokes AND WERE RIGHT LAST TIME YOU SAID "HELP, WE'VE BEEN KIDNAPPED." The fact that well-meaning adults consistently say, "Shh, children, it's grown-up time now," or close to it, works all right enough in this book, but by the time you've reached the second one and they're still doing it, it more than strained credulity, at least for me.