The Bad Beginning is the first in a series of thirteen books
featuring the hapless Baudelaire orphans.
After their parents die in a tragic house fire, Klaus, Violet and Sunny
are shipped off to live with their uncle, the evil Count Olaf. It quickly becomes clear to them that they
are not welcome at Olaf’s…especially when they learn of his plot to steal their
inheritance!
These books are very fun and should be suitable for most
middle-grade readers, although the humor is so smart that I’ve even caught a
few of my adult friends reading them as well!
I really enjoyed the way that the children seem to always be smarter
than the adults, especially once they’ve learned of Count Olaf’s diabolical
plan.
It’s my goal to work through the rest of the series this
year, but I couldn’t help thinking about how many children’s book characters
are orphans. I don’t know why that is,
except for maybe that writing about orphans could give an author more freedom
to explore different situations without worrying about how parents might
obstruct the plot of the story? But what
do you think? Does writing a character’s
parents into the story add to the plot, or would it shift the focus off of the
kids?
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