The Bad Beginning: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 1 (by Lemony Snicket)

like when i reviewed the movie, it's the same story. The parents die in a fire and have to live with a mean relative. count olaf. violence is a BIG problem. a boy gets hit on the face,a baby is traped in a high tower, and a hook grabs a girls shirt.the book is dark,but the movie is darker.

count olaf drinks wine and acts drunk in front of the kids

I read this book when I was about 10. The Baudelaires loss was sad. It was a great book anyway. You can look at my reviews in all thirteen books.

My dad bought me this series (the first three books) when I was 7 though I didn't read them until I was 10. The uncle is horrible and you'll hate him from the very beginning. The kids you will love though! Because they're very smart and seem almost real! The series is really long but not like it's dragging on and on....it's interesting throughout.

I find this books quite amusing! Lemony Snicket warns you it may depress you, but he's exaggerating a bit. Somehow throughtotu each book you know the Baudelaires will be fine, and Count Olaf will lose. This is a good introduction to the series and hints there's more to come.

this book is truly wonderful, and snicket does a wonderful job at delivering a life-like feel throught all 13 marvilous books.

I absolutely loved this book. It's a bit dark and violent, and the adults aren't always good (or that bright), but there are positive adults and the kids are fantastic and funny. I think parents may want to read with the kids so if the kids are bothered the book can be discussed.

We're up to the third book now, but I thought I'd post for those considering starting the series. I have a real affection for these books, as well as some concerns. Count Olaf is a truly awful villain, with a habit of murdering each of the orphans' caretakers. Most adults, including their guardian at the bank, Mr. Poe, are kindhearted but ineffectual and emotionally unavailable; the kids are often left to their own devices to save themselves. However, the kids are well-mannered, generous and ingenuitive. They manage to keep their inherent goodness, and stick together, despite exposure to situations that are not innocent. Oh, and there are lots of good vocabulary words with situational definitions. My 8-year-old and I are really enjoying this series, but I wish we'd waited to start it until she was a bit older, like 9 or 10.

The Bad Beginning is the start to arguably one of the best book series in recent memory. Kids often find reading boring, but it is difficult to critique this book given the lack of boring parts. They will be interested, but adults will probably also enjoy and will understand it better. The Bad Beginning is about Count Olaf, a very evil man, and three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. The three siblings have recently experienced a house fire that caused both their parents to die. The three are the inheritors of a large fortune from their parents but are not old enough to get it. As a result, they must live with their "cousin" Count Olaf, who intends to get that fortune all to himself and uses a plethora of evil plans to do so. Despite seeming childish, this book is fairly realistic. The characters act realistically and the situations are very well described and seem like they could happen to an unfortunate group of siblings. Throughout the series, for the most part anyway, the three siblings are excellent role models for the children and send good messages, even though Olaf sends his share of bad ones. All the books in the series are incredible and they have humor scattered throughout them as well, although not all the kids will understand it. The books are a must buy as they are not boring yet make sense and are a lot of fun to read.