Reviews - Riverside Public Library

Booklist Reviews

Gr. 4-6. The Beaudelaire orphans enroll as students at Prufrock Academy in the fifth Series of Unfortunate Events book. The Academy, run by nasty, mimicking Vice Principal Nero, is shaped like a large tombstone, and the perpetually unlucky Violet, Klaus, and Sunny must stay in a tin shack with biting crabs, dripping tan fungus, and green walls decorated with tiny green hearts. Series followers will be keeping their eye out for evil Count Olaf in one of his disguises, and the author doesn't disappoint. Snicket once again uses comical word definitions in the text ("the phrase `impressionable age' here means `ten and eight years old, respectively'), and just when things seem a little too predictable, Count Olaf makes off with the Beaudelaire's new friends, the Quagmire orphans, so setting things up for book six. Kids not familiar with the previous books will also enjoy this. --Susan Dove Lempke Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

BookPage Reviews

Like the other four books in Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, the cover of The Austere Academy carries a warning for those who prefer a cheerful story: Don't read this book.

The Austere Academy begins with a description of Carmelita Spats, who "deserves a gold medal for being the least delightful person on Earth." Rude, violent, and filthy, she is a study in contrast to the three Baudelaire siblings, who deserve gold medals for surviving the adversity faced in the first four books.

Anyone who hasn't read the previous books will quickly come to know the Baudelaires: 14-year-old Violet, a clever girl who is always ready with an invention to make life more manageable; her brother, Klaus, a voracious reader whose immense vocabulary and vast store of knowledge have helped the siblings in the past; and Sunny, their baby sister who still speaks in syllables only the family understands. And then there is Count Olaf, the evil uncle who has followed the orphans, and the fortune they stand to inherit, since the first book of the series, The Bad Beginning.

The Austere Academy finds the hapless orphans at Prufrock Preparatory School, a sinister place with buildings resembling gravestones (or thumbs), a motto reading "Momento Mori" (which according to Klaus means: Remember you will die), and a vice principal named Nero who thinks he can play the violin (he can't) and fancies himself a genius (he isn't).

Because the Baudelaire siblings have no parent or guardian to sign them into the school's dorms, they are quickly sent to the orphan shack, a dismal tin building infested with territorial crabs and encrusted with a dripping fungus, not to mention the hideous tan and pink wallpaper. The school is equally dismal, full of poor teachers - which in this case doesn't mean economically poor - it means obsessed with the metric system.

Despite an elaborate computer system to keep Count Olaf away from the Baudelaire children, Olaf shows up to make things even more miserable. Disguised as a PE teacher, Coach Genghis, he designs the Special Orphan Running Exercises (SORE) which is yet another attempt to get at their fortune.

But all is not completely gloomy for the orphans. They meet and become fast friends with Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, who are also orphans. This friendship, and the continuing conflict with Olaf - not to mention the unraveling mystery of Beatrice - keep us anxious for the next book in Snicket's series.

BookPage Reviews

Countdown to Lemony Snicket fun!

The months are whizzing by, bringing readers ever closer to getting their hands on a new book in Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. For diehard fans who can't bear the wait until September—when Book The Eleventh: The Grim Grotto will appear—we're helping to pass the time with a recap of the first 10 books in this wonderfully original and wildly popular series.

Just how popular is Lemony Snicket? Books from the series recently held seven of the 10 slots on the New York Times bestseller list for children's chapter books. Despite Mr. Snicket's dire warnings that his books are "extremely unpleasant," more than 18 million readers worldwide have been daring enough to jump on Lemony's bandwagon. If you'd like to join the fun (or should we say the misery and woe?) of reading about the Baudelaire orphans, connect with our countdown and sample all the books in this special series.

This month, we're focusing on Book the Fourth: The Miserable Mill (HarperCollins, $10.99, 208 pages, ISBN 0064407691) and Book the Fifth: The Austere Academy, where Lemony (aka Daniel Handler) really hits his stride. As Book Four opens, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are on the move once again, this time to the town of Paltryville, deep in the Finite Forest. The orphans are put to work in the Lucky Smells lumber mill and, as always, must fend off the evil Count Olaf, who is frighteningly eager to get his hands on their vast inheritance. In The Austere Academy, the Baudelaires are shipped off to Prufrock Prep School, where they befriend fellow orphans Duncan and Isadora Quagmire. Unfortunately, Count Olaf (disguised as the school's coach) has plans for this unlucky duo—and it doesn't involve playing kickball.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

The three Baudelaire orphans and their new friends, the two (sic) Quagmire triplets, endure the indignities of the Prufrock Preparatory School, while contending with fiddle-playing Vice Principal Nero and their old nemesis Count Olaf. This episode features entertaining villains and intriguing hints about the orphans' past--but the distinctively peevish voice of the narrator grows increasingly one-noted. Copyright 2001 Horn Book Guide Reviews

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 4-7-In this fifth entry in the saga of the three Baudelaire children, the siblings are sent to a boarding school where they are tormented because they are orphans. There is the usual array of stupid/evil adults including the ridiculous Vice Principal Nero, who mimics everything that Klaus and Violet say andemploys baby Sunny as his secretary because she is too young to attend class. Brown-nosing brats like Carmelita Spats make the children's lives even more miserable. The ending is a cliff-hanger as the evil Count Olaf, disguised as Coach Genghis, the new gym teacher, drives off with the orphans' only friends. In these days of Harry Potter, this book is a pesky nuisance, with little plot to drive it, situations that fall short of being interesting or off-the-wall, and cardboard characters. The author strains to be eccentric and his constant interruptions in the narrative to define a word or phrase are jarring at best.-Ann Cook, Winter Park Public Library, FL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.