Notice that four out of five stars means "Really liked it." This book was really cool! I can't believe I never read the Series of Unfortunate Events books when I was a kid. The first one came out in 1999. I suppose at that time I was starting 6th grade. I have no clue what I was reading back then. Maybe I was just getting into Ray Bradbury...Anyway, even though I started halfway through the book, I was able to pick up on a lot of what had happened before. Plus Wikipedia helped.

I loved how the book is so witty. The author includes a healthy dose of vocabulary, including words that I had to look up, like ersatz and vapid. Of course, Snicket does a good job of explaining them in context and even playing with words. For example, the Baudelaires didn't want to be shorthanded so they took the fire irons. Then they were longhanded. Little things like this cause my approval to soar.

And the artist is a BYU graduate! Awesome. I will definitely recommend this series to my future children.

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are in.