A Bad Beginning By Lemony Snicket DeShea Jones Assignment 4: Children’s Fiction LSIS 5505-OL1 Dr. Edna Cogdell

Book Information  Title: The Bad Beginning: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the First  Author: Lemony Snicket  Illustrator: Brett Helquist  Publisher: HarperCollins  Number of Chapters: 13  Number of Pages: 162  Age Range: 9-12

Opening Page “ If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning, and very few happy things in the middle. This is because not very many happy things happened in the lives of the three Baudelaire youngsters. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were intelligent children, and they were charming, and resourceful, and had pleasant facial features, but they were extremely unlucky, and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair. I ’ m sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes. ”

Plot  Three children are left orphans when their parents die in a house fire.  They are sent to live with a distant relative, Count Olaf.  Olaf plots to steal the children ’ s inheritance money  He treats the children very badly and Mr. Poe, their parent ’ s attorney, does not believe them.  Olaf comes up with a plan where he will put on a play and pretend to marry the oldest orphan. However, it will be a legally binding marriage because a Judge will unknowingly marry them.  Count Olaf ’ s plan backfires at the last minute and he flees. Nevertheless, the book ends with the children being sent to live with another distant relative they do not know.

Plot Analysis  A very good story that is exciting, funny, sad, and horrible all at the same time.  Children will enjoy the book because it is entertaining and exciting. Also, the children beat the adults.  There is a lot of action. The children are locked up, beaten, and treated badly. The story moves along quite well, not boring at all.  The plot is original and fresh. It does not have a happy ending, which is an interesting way of telling a story. The book is like a children’s version of Charles Dickens  The book is well written, gives background, leads up to the events, everything is logical.

Plot Analysis Continued  There are lots of examples of cause and effect. The big one of the story is that their parents died (cause) and they are left as orphans who must live with a stranger (effect).  There is definitely an identifiable climax in the story; it keeps building up until Violet is onstage with Olaf and she marries him in the play. Then we find out it is not valid and the tension goes down from there.  How do events build to a climax? Parents die, move in with Olaf, treated horribly, try to find out how Olaf will steal the money, figure out it is the play, locked in tower, forced into play  The plot is well constructed. It is well written and the plot is well developed and makes sense. Overall it is a very good story.

Setting  Place- a large dirty city near the coast, someplace tourists visit- doesn ’ t tell exactly where  Time- not sure, from the pictures it looks like the late 1800s or early 1900s, never gives an exact setting  Since the time is not given the setting makes it seem like this could happen anytime to anyone (now or a long time ago)  Setting always contributes to the books in the series

Theme  Reverse Psychology- “Don’t read this book” but it makes you want to read it  Inaction- adults do nothing when the children are in trouble, Mr. Poe, Justice Strauss  Children who have a great life, sudden tragedy, taken to live with someone horrible, then experience an adventure  Misfortune  Resiliency, bravery  The theme is good for children, but does not moralize, it is revealed naturally

Characters  The character are well developed. The author gives background info on the children at the beginning (parents, what each one likes, how they look), each one continues to do what they like during the book, the author gives more info and the reader sees the character as the book moves along. Count Olaf- give descriptions on him and his house, behavior, friends  Strengths and Weaknesses? StrengthsWeaknesses Childrensmart, loves to read or engineering age Count Olaf smarthis anger and letting people know what he is doing, underestimating the kids

Style  Macabre  Humor  Irony  Linguistic (uses big words, but explains them in a humorous way), "a word which here means..."  Gothic (suburban gothic)  Style is appropriate, dialogue is natural, create mood by saying it is a sad story, setting

Point of View  Written from Lemony Snicket ’ s point of view- like he is telling the story of what happened to the children.  Within the story it is told more from the children ’ s point of view  Point of view is good because it is like this is a horrible story that someone is telling you- adds suspense and mystery to the book  POV does not change Lemony Snicket

Additional Considerations  Binding is very sturdy, hardback, seems like it would hold up well  Reviews have been good, compared to Dahl and Dickens  How well designed? Well, the pictures that are added are nice, not a lot but enough to give the reader a visual, but not make them feel like that are reading a little kids book. The pictures add to the sad setting and story. There is one at the beginning of each chapter which lets the reader know a little about the chapter.

Back Cover

Citation Snicket, L. (1999). The bad beginning. New York: HarperCollins.