Amber (10) and I have been listening to the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket in the car this summer. So far, we’ve heard #1 through #6 and we’ve just started the 7th. I have to say I’ve been enjoying them and of course she has or we wouldn’t keep borrowing new ones from the library.
I’m not going to go into the plot for each one. Suffice it to say that three young orphans go from guardian to guardian, always pursued by the evil Count Olaf in various disguises. He is after their fortune, of course, and though the kids tell person after person, the adults never believe the children and they never see through Olaf’s assumed identities until the last 
chapter when it becomes obvious and Olaf gets away anyway.
I can certainly see the appeal for kids. What kid hasn’t felt like they are surrounded by adults who often don’t see or don’t understand the most obvious things? I’m sure all kids have experienced a time when they’ve tried to tell a grown-up something only to be ignored. The Baudelaire orphans live with that all the time. The adults never believe them. Violet, Klaus and Sunny are basically on their own, trying to outsmart a felon and protect each other. Some well-meaning adults do try to provide for the children the best 
they can, but they are always incompetent. The three can only rely on each other.
Mr. Poe especially gets on my nerves. He’s a banker and family friend who is in charge of seeing that the Baudelaire’s are placed with a guardian and following up to make sure everything is going okay. He’s a pompous idiot, too busy to oversee the Baudelaire’s affairs appropriately, more concerned with his job as a banker than with them it seems. And of course, time and again he sees that Count Olaf really has found the children, but in the next story, he simply dismisses their concern as paranoia 
again. That’s the thing, he’s a continuing character, but he never, ever learns to have any trust in the Violet or Klaus. I’ll give him a pass on not understanding Sunny, since she is an infant and most of what she says is unintelligible. Oh, and Mr. Poe’s coughing fits are just disgusting, way more effective on audio than they would be on the page.
I will say this, though, these books are definitely vocabulary builders for kids. Not only do they introduce new words, like ersatz, nefarious and pandemonium, they also provide a definition, although in some cases it’s more amusing and related to the specific book than the general 
definition you would find in a dictionary. At least kids are becoming familiar with the words. And Amber’s always been one to stop me during stories and ask what words that are new to her mean, a habit I definitely try to encourage.
As far as the audio versions go, Amber prefers the full cast recording that we heard for one of them, I forget which one. I however tend to prefer one narrator, although I do have to say the Tim Curry does a much better job than the author, whose voice for certain characters can be almost ear-piercingly shrill.
We’ve still got about half the series left to listen to. I’m sure with driving back and forth to school, along with a couple of weekend trips we’ve got planned for this fall, we’ll have plenty of listening time. I have to admit, I’m looking forward to seeing how the series ends.
I’ve always wanted to read these but I never got around to it. I did go see the film in theaters but I wasn’t overly impressed.
A friend of mine recommended these books to me years ago and I’ve yet to try them, but you’ve really tempted me. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a full cast audio, but the concept intrigues me.
Fun! That reminds me, I should watch that Jim carrey movie
We watched the movie a while ago, before hearing the stories. It was a fun one .
I’ve not read any of this series, but I could definitely use some vocabulary building!
My stepdaughter loved these books as a preteenager. Never knew about the vocab building angle — nice plus.
I started reading these a while back but never kept it up sadly because I was enjoying them. I bet they’re great to listen to – I should look into that instead.
I always keep a dictionary handy when I read because I don’t like not knowing what a word means. That’s a great habit for Amber to keep up.
I saw these in the library the other day, and I asked my daughter if she wanted to read them with me, but she chose the Spiderwick Chronicles instead. Glad to see you’ve both been enjoying them!
We read the Spiderwick books a while ago and really enjoyed them. I probably liked them more than this series, probably because of the fantasy aspect.
I liked Spiderwick when I read the series some time ago. I haven’t read this one but thanks for the review!
I’m only to The Miserable Mill, but have most of the others! I should really just sit down one afternoon and read them! They are such quick, fun (or rather, un-fun!) reads! 🙂