January 7, 2015
I certainly didn't need a day off from work so soon after winter break, but I couldn't complain when I got the phone call last night. It's one of those insanely cold days, but I've been out and about a little, in addition to getting some reading done.
I'm in a bit of a bind with my ebooks. See, I've finished volume one of a two volume text (I'll count them as one book once I've read both). I'm at the top of the hold list for volume two, and for a book I've been waiting on for several MONTHS. But neither are available yet, so I needed to find a short ebook for gym reading, not too long that I won't be ready when I get one of the other books. But now I've finished that short one...oops.
Anyway, this is the first of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. I saw the movie with Jim Carrey in it years back, and it wasn't bad. What I'd heard about it, though, is that rather than attempt a series of films ala Harry Potter, they kind of just took elements of several of the books (and much of the plot of this first book) and made one movie. The consensus is that it didn't work; having just read the first book, I can't really say.
This is an interesting book. There's a mixture of whimsy and darkness in the tone that works here. I think if these books had been around when I was 9 or 10, I would have devoured them as quickly as I could. I was a little older than that when the series started being published, and I do remember hearing about it as a teenager, but it didn't catch my interest at that point. However, this series has an adult following as well, and I get that. "Snicket" (Daniel Handler) includes absurdity and cleverness that might be more easily picked up by adults than children. For instance, while making some of the vocabulary accessible to younger readers with narrative explanations (a motif), some of them are silly jokes. Yeah, shit sucks for the Baudelaire kids, but the heart of the story is the humor.
And, of course, the fact that the children are more clever than the adults. That is, of course, almost expected in children's literature. I'd say this is a good book, and since I'm pretty sure we've got the series at work, I'll probably pick up the second one as my next reading book for my classroom. I will definitely recommend it to my struggling readers; as I said, the book is accessible, but not "dumbed down." A classmate of mine a couple of years ago, who I had a bit of a crush on, had gotten into the series herself as a kid, and pointed it out as a quality text for struggling teen readers. I concur, and I think it's a rather good series for confident adult readers as well. I will definitely find out for sure.
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