A Series of Unfortunate Events

Miserably scrawled by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Brett Helquist, this story follows Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, three intelligent and resourceful siblings who are exceptionally unlucky. The children are charming and have pleasant facial features, but their lives change abruptly when they learn their parents have died and that they are orphans overnight. In what the narrator calls a very bad beginning, the Baudelaires are placed in the care of the repulsive and sinister Count Olaf. With their family fortune at stake, the siblings must endure itchy clothing, boiled potatoes, shamefully incompetent adults, and an unwanted wedding while trying to survive Olaf's greed and schemes.