Customer Reviews

The Wide Window

5 star:		(89)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Those poor Baudelaire orphans. After the death of their beloved Uncle Monty, the third installment of Lemony Snicket's tale has Violet, Klaus, and Sunny heading toward the home of yet another new guardian. Left by Mr. Poe at Damocles Dock at the edge of Lake Lachrymose for the taxi that will take them to the home of Josephine Anwhistle, the orphans must once again wonder about what fate holds in store for them. Will the grammatically correct dowager be kind like Uncle Morty, or wretched like Count Olaf?

It turns out that Aunt Josephine is a mixture of the two. Although she welcomes them into her home, the woman is so terrified by everything--the stove, glass doorknobs, radiators, and even realtors--that the children are hard pressed to enjoy their dinners of cold cucumber soup and their presents of a baby doll, train set, and rattle. Living high above the Lake that is full of the leeches that devoured Josephine's husband, Ike, the three Baudelaire children have a hard time convincing their Aunt to even leave the house.

On a trip to the market, however, who should appear once again with yet another despicable plan to steal the Baudelaire fortune but Count Olaf--this time in the disguise of Captain Sham, a man with an eye patch and peg leg who has opened a boating company of his own. Josephine, of course, is at once enamored of the dashing Captain, and Mr. Poe, as always, is not convinced by the children's claim that Captain Sham and Count Olaf are one and the same. What follows is another does of typical Baudelaire fare--diabolical plans, a terrible hurricane named Herman, a bizarre restaurant named the Anxious Clown, a boat ride across a leech-filled lake, a rescue at Curdled Cave, and another meet-up with Count Olaf's nasty associates.

THE WIDE WINDOW is another winning story in the tales of the Baudelaire orphans. The story took me about an hour and a half to read, and is suitable for children around ages 9 and up. Again, however, you'll need to base your decision of its suitability based on the maturity of your children, as this book is just as dark as the first two.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

In the Series of Unfortunate Events isn't ahappily ever after kind of story. There are three regular children:

Violet, who loves to invent

Klaus, who loves to read

and Sunny who loves to bite

Violet is the oldest, Claus the middle child, Sunny is the youngest.

In the Bad Beginning, things got off to a terrible start for the Baudelaire children. Things got even worse in The Reptile Room and poor Uncle Monty was killed by Count Olaf. Count Olaf was caught of course, but escaped to plot and scheme again.

This time around Mr. Poe places the children with a distant relative, Aunt Josephine. Aunt Josephiine lives in a house on the edge of a hill, a house that is very literally above Lake Lachrymose, a lake infested with Lachrymose Leeches who would eat a human if they smelled food on them.

Aunt Josephine is as eccentric as other relatives have been. She's a total grammar freak and so scared of every thing that the children have to live in a cold house and eat cold food because their aunt is afraid of accidents with fire. When Aunt Josephine meets Captain Sham who (who is Count Olaf in disguise), good fortune turns bad. Aunt Josephine dies and the apparent cause of death is jumping through the wide window in the living room, leaving the three children to Captain Sham (who is Count Olaf in disguise).

As the orphans try to figure out a way to escape from Count Olaf, they discover their aunt is still alive and in hiding. So they set out to find her and convince her to come back. To find out what happens next, you'll have to read the book.

I thought that the book was boring. Its good and all, but it is slow. They are sent to live with Aunt Josephine, a woman who is afraid of every thing, even the doorknob. Count Olaf appears and tries to steal the fortune.

This books picks up from the previous book as the orphans are now carted off to live with there aunt Josephine, ok so she's not actually their aunt but some odd fourth cousin twelve times removed or something. After reading two of the previous books in the series I am sure the reader can now guess that the children will have to deal with the horrid count Olaf again in some odd disguise that he has thought up. Still I did find this book enjoyable, but highly predictable by now. The author doses not change the style in which he writes and in fact the stories are of a very similar plot line. This is not to say that I will not read all thirteen books when they are published in their entirety. So hopefully all will enjoy this third installment of the orphan's grisly tale.

This is the 3rd 'Unfortunate Events' book I have read, and call me slow, but are these books all just the same thing? Every book I have read so far has the poor orphans (a phrase meaning they lost their parents, not poor as in they have no money) being shipped off to some new location in the care of some well-meaning but dim person with a tenuous family connection, as the nefarious Count Olaf slips on a disguise and manages to fool everyone. Of course the children immediately know it is Count Olaf - the adults are dumb and stupid, and do not.

I guess that's what happens in every book of the series. Hmm. Anyway, this book finds the orphans heading off to visit their aunt, blahdeeblah, Count Olaf arrives dressed as a sea captain, blingbloo, Count Olaf almost inherits the orphans, so on, so forth, etc., etc. Adults die, threats of physical violence are made towards children...I think if I were a young child reading this book I'd be a bit frightened! I don't know who these books are targeted towards.

"I don't care what he calls himself. He has the same shiny eyes, the same single eyebrow-."
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are now living with their Aunt Josephine in a house overlooking Lake Lachrymose. Aunt Josephine is afraid to touch almost everything for fear it will explode, shatter, or electricute her. She is also afraid of the lake where her beloved husband, Ike, was eaten by the Lachrymose Leeches.
While shopping, Violet runs into someone she hoped never to meet again. Count Olaf, disguised as a man named Captain Sham, appears. Violet trys to explain to Aunt Josephine Count Olaf is in town. However, the Baudelaire's Aunt won't hear of it. Now, the children are faced with yet another terrible scheme from Count Olaf.
Once I started reading the 3rd book in the Series of Unfortunate Events I was immediately drawn into the lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. This is an exciting, suspenseful, cliff hanger experienced by three orphans. The Wide Window shows the bravery the orphans have when facing the terrible man who has been after their fortune forever. I recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic fiction or enjoys a story of misery and suspense.

Morgen F.

The tale of the Bauldlaire children continues whan the choked-up, old mad Mr. poe sends the children to yet another place where he thinks they will be safe. The way this story continues is great. The plot of the book is great and the way the author wrote the book is cool. It's exciting and I think that everybody sould read this book. It's one of the best books I've ever read.

This book has a relatively good story. Perhaps not the best of the series, but it has some suspense and the usual "biting" humor. Alas, the audio book is terribly narrated. Thank heavens Tim Curry narrates every other Lemony Snicket book (so far). I highly recommend the other books on audiocassette. If your child is a reluctant reader, the Tim Curry audios of these books will have him or her hooked.

I have been enjoying the "Series of Unfortunate Events" stories on CD during my long commutes. The stress brought on by reckless and inconsiderate drivers is somehow lessened when I think of the troubles faced by the Baudelaire children. But...

I have found the sound quality and consistency of the recordings by Lemony Snicket himself (as compared to the early recordings done by Tim Curry) to be less than satisfactory. It's rather like eating cold parsnip soup with vinegar on a chilly, rainy day. It's just not what one would expect.

In this recording, the reader uses VOLUME rather than voice modulation to differentiate between characters. The problem is that some parts of the story are almost impossible to hear, so one turns up the volume. Then the reader switches to a character voice that is EXTREMELY LOUD AND STARTLING to the listener. It really is a distraction from the stories. I'm on Book the Fifth now, but I may not be able to continue...

Guardians of the unfortunate Baudelaire orphans can be easily separated into three categories. They are malicious (Count Olaf), benign (Uncle Monty), or useless (Aunt Josephine). In this particular book we meet the ineffectual Aunt Josephine, the third of the Baudelaire's guardians and, perhaps, the most useless of them all. I mean, certainly it is unfortunate that Count Olaf was their first, and continually follows them from home to home, always wearing disguises. But he was not useless. In fact, he moves the plots along quite nicely.

In "The Wide Window", the unfortunate three have landed on the shores of Lake Lachrymose (lachrymose here meaning, "given to tears or weeping", as I am sure the children were feeling at that moment). They have been placed in the care of Aunt Josephine, a woman afraid of everything. Still, this new home is not too too bleak. The children have a large library to go through (albeit a library full of grammar books) and things appear to be going fairly smoothly until they run across their nemesis Count Olaf yet again. This time, he is disguised as Captain Sham (love the name) and his new plans to get his hands on the orphans is just as devious as ever.

For vocabulary reasons alone these books are a wonder. Any parent reading them to their children would do well to explain all the little in-jokes that appear along the way (always assuming that the adults themselves GET the jokes in the first place). This book also is one of the first Baudelaire sagas in which the orphans actually see their guardian dispatched before their very eyes. Of course, you can't feel too badly about Aunt Josephine's death. She did attempt to sacrifice the orphans' lives for her own, in an act of cowardice that doomed her to death by (ugh) leeches. All in all, a wonderful continuation of A Series of Unfortunate Events.