The Reptile Room
Lemony Snicket
Reading Level: 6.3
Interest Level: Middle Grades
Hardcover
ISBN: 0064407675, Published by HarperTrophy, 208 pages.
Audio Cassette
ISBN: 0807261793, Published by Bantam Books-Audio, unabridged.
The Reptile Room (Book the Second in A Series of Unfortunate Events) continues the Baudelaire tale of misery and woe.
The Baudelaire orphans (Violet, Klaus and Sunny) have a new home with their Uncle Montgomery Montgomery. Everything appears to be delightful. At first.
Uncle Monty is a renowned herpetologist with a large home (with a private room for each of the children), an exotic reptile room, and loads of books.
Uncle Monty's new assistant, Stephano, arrives. To their horror, the children discover that Stephano is the nasty Count Olaf, intent in his pursuit of their trust fund.
Without revealing too much of the story, I can safely say that it ends on familiar ground...with the children homeless, without a guardian, and left in the care of Mr. Poe (and wearing the same itchy, ugly clothes).
A Series of Unfortunate Events are dark books, likely to appeal to fans of Roald Dahl and John Bellairs, but they are anything but grim.
The books are wonderfully crafted, in every respect, from the pseudonym of the author (have you ever seen such a perfect nom de plume? Lemony Snicket), to the crisp language, to the physical design of the books.
The tone of the books is simply delightful...direct and simple, almost jocular, without a hint of condescension.
The books themselves set the atmosphere with old-fashioned bindings and rough-cut pages.
Purely delightful. Best enjoyed by those 10 and older.
Barbara Handley
Related Resources
Additional ORL titles by Lemony Snicket
1) The Bad Beginning
Read the ORL Review
A Box of Unfortunate Events Books 1-3 Boxed Set.
A Library of Unfortunate Events
Books 1-10 Boxed Set.
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Off-site links to related topics.
Lemony Snicket
Official web site: info about the author, games, screen savers and more.
Incomplete Guide to Lemony Snicket Allusions
A guide to literary and historical allusions in A Series of Unfortunate Events.