"The Bad Beginning" – gently educational and extremely popular
Lemony Snicket
1999, HarperCollins Publishers
"The Bad Beginning" is the first in a series of dark humorous books by the mysterious Lemony Snicket. It introduces us to the Baudelaire children, soon to become the Baudelaire Orphans. It all begins with the untimely death of the Baudelaire parents in suspicious circumstances and the orphans being raised by the evil Count Olaf. Count Olaf soon states that his only reason for taking the Baudelaire orphans in is to get his hands on the vast fortune that was left to them by their parents. As the orphans’ lives go from bad to worse, the reader is reminded, at regular intervals, that there are many more cheerful stories to read. But the reverse psychology works well and Snicket’s book has proved extremely popular with both parents and children. Snicket uses difficult vocabulary but explains the trickier words in a way that the reader is able to understand. It makes the book educational, in the gentlest of ways, and the progressive misery of the main characters provides a darkly humorous atmosphere. The reader can only wonder at how the orphans’ plight goes from bad to worse, and further. The terrible events rise action by avoiding any hint of a happy ending. "The Bad Beginning“ is a small book that can easily be read in a couple of sittings by a confident reader of English. It can equally be read aloud and used as a hook to entice children to read the following books in the series. Book 12, „The Penultimate Peril“, was published last year, but readers should be encouraged to read the books in chronological order as references to earlier disasters are made through the later books. "The Bad Beginning“ is recommended for confident English readers of Class 4, and for learners of English of Class 7. The book is also available in German (Der Schreckliche Anfang). Red and blue questions for the English and German versions are available on Antolin. cur
