A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

The second junior novel we decided to read was “A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning” by Lemony Snicket. We both enjoyed the series as children and decided that it would be an amusing tale to delve into.  We discussed the possibility with the rest of the book club and the majority were interested.  At this point we assured the members that if they weren't keen on reading the novel we had chosen that they could skip it and come back to the group later.  We never wanted our members to feel like they had to read something that they themselves would never use in their teaching practices.

We decided that this likely would not be a book that we would choose to read aloud to our classes, but would still include in our classroom libraries.  This is the first book of a series of 13 books, so we felt like it would still be important for students to have the chance to pick up the series if they were interested in it. A lot of the members felt like it dealt with too many dark themes, such as death and deception, and that they would rather not expose their students to it.  Despite this, we generated a lot of great discussion surrounding the notion that it’s important not to shield children from the real world.  It is unrealistic not to address the fact that people die, or that there are “bad” people in the world.

These are the discussion questions that were generated for the story:

• Why does Lemony Snicket warn readers at the beginning and several times throughout the book to put it down and read something else?
• Why would anyone want to read a book when they have been forewarned that the likeable main characters will meet nothing but despair? Are Snicket’s warnings sincere? What effect do they have?
• Mr. Poe and Justice Strauss do not believe the children’s accounts of Count Olaf’s mistreatment. Why not? How might the Baudelaire children have convinced them of Count Olaf’s cruelty? How could the adults have helped the children?
• The children soon realize that they must depend on one another and their own wits in order to survive in Count Olaf’s care. How are each of their special skills crucial to their survival?
• The morning after they visit Mr. Poe at the bank, Count Olaf serves the children oatmeal with fresh raspberries. Why is he suddenly so kind to them?
• The Baudelaires are often the victims of bad luck. What could they do to change their situation?
• Who is Al Funcoot? What did he write?

*We did not come up with all of these discussion questions.  Some were borrowed from Lemony Snicket’s website!