Just finished reading the last of the 'Series of Unfortunate Events' to my 6-year old.

[lostnfound]

Yes, I know that it is completely inappropriate for a 6 year old.. In nearly every book there was some horrifying death, worst among them was in the 'Carnivorous Carnival' where a person got thrown to the lions. Definitely not recommended for a 6 year old.

He begged me to get one from the library many months ago -- the children's section. It was the 2nd in the series, which was not quite as dark -- and he liked it enough to want the whole series. Having been exposed to the idea that old-time fairy tales used to be scarier and that it is actually good for children to be able to face such emotions in fiction, to help them learn to better face them in life, I finally decided what the heck and bought it. There were just a few paragraphs here and there that I paraphrased, because they just seemed too intense and I was afraid it would give him nightmares, but we read almost all of it word for word.

Despite the darkness of the themes, we both enjoyed the books immensely, and to read such a long series was a great bonding experience. The vocabulary was terrific (he now knows what a 'schism' is, and 'penultimate'), and the underlying lessons in the books were actually often fantastic. I think I liked 'The Slippery Slope' the best, which, with a backdrop of a frozen waterfall, actually explores the idea of not becoming like one's enemies, no matter how convenient or necessary it might seem to be. In 'The Miserable Mill', the workers are paid not with money but with gum and discount coupons, because the owner is greedy. The adults may fail them -- often from a lack of courage, or laziness, or personal fear -- but the children manage to survive each set of terrible circumstances, through perseverance, book reading, courage, incredible inventiveness, and looking out for each other. To me the message seemed empowering.

We read it for a couple hours every day. The plot, and themes, became more intricate as the series progressed, fascinating toward the end.

The world is not always as it seems, the media sometimes lies, the appearance of justice is sometimes a sham. Two parts were especially shocking -- for being true-to-life -- one was a trial which was a sham, and the children were trying to convince the crowd to remove their blindfolds and see for themselves, and even though some in the crowd tended to believe the children, none were willing to go ahead and remove them. The other was how the villains were able to persuade other people to consider throwing themselves into a pit of lions -- for the glory of it, for the promise of a career afterward if they happened to be one who volunteered but didn't end up in the pit, etc. -- for the sake of a spectacle for the masses, for the sake of greed for the villains, for the sake of a journalist who was always interested in writing sensationalist stories. I couldn't help but think of the villains in Washington so ready to send others into battle.

All in all, it was Very Fine Drama.

[tigereye]

1. it's funny, one of my son's teachers said that no one loves gore as much as

the 8-11 set - she said that's why they loved Shakespeare.


I myself didn't really care for Lemony Snicket (i'm more of a Time Warp trio fan) but my son really liked em.