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208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 7, 2004
I read this book because it was on my bookshelf and I didn't feel like searching for a good book the night I started it, so I grabbed the first thing I saw. It was entertaining and semi-informative, which was its goal. It wasn't a particularly good book, but it was a fun, quick read and I learned a few things. Lois H. Gresh talks about the real ideas behind events from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I thought it would be similar to the Magic Tree House books that accompany the fiction stories and tell the facts and history behind it, but it was only remotely similar to that. It didn't focus on research and facts as much as fun and funniness. It talked about how young kids could actually invent the things they did at home, had quizzes similar to the ones you'd find in teen magazines, and grammar lessons. It was obviously aimed at younger kids, but it wouldn't teach anyone of any age much, excluding the chapters on fungi and snakes. However, said chapters were interesting and informative, although they did not give many details.
When I picked this up I wanted to learn some cool, random facts and The Truth Behind A Series of Unfortunate Events included a few of those, so I was satisfied. It was not very informative, but it was entertaining, which was what I was looking for at the moment. It was a quick, funny read that left me with slightly more knowledge than I had before I read it. I would not recommend it, neither to children nor adults, but it was enjoyable.