The Truth Behind a Series of Unfortunate Events: Eyeballs, Leeches, Hypnotism, and Orphans---Exploring Lemony Snicket's World

Ever heard of an automatic harmonica? Need to learn to pick a lock? Did you know there are 650 species of leeches? Fans of the Lemony Snicket series The Complete Wreck (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Books 1-13) will want to keep this unauthorized companion handy, and newcomers will find Gresh's "Ultimate Book Report about Lemony Snicket" (p. 192) a helpful resource when diving into the series for the first time. Gresh's main goal appears to be to easily flow learning opportunities into The Truth without interrupting the reader's enjoyment. She accomplishes this by combining events from the series with academic enlightenment. For example, in Chapter Five, she references Book the Second, The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 2), within a discussion of herpetology, frog facts, and a text-box entitled, "The Most Deadly Snakes in the World" (pp. 57-60). In another instance, Gresh references Count Olaf from the first book, The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 1). She includes Count Olaf's attempt to trick fourteen-year-old Violet into marrying him without the young girl's knowledge in Chapter Eight, among details of legal marrying ages in not only states throughout the U.S., but also other countries, as well as text-boxes entitled "Marital Law in Ancient Rome" and "Marital Law in Ancient Greece" (pp. 105-8). Overall, although unauthorized, the facts, insights, and quizzes offered by Gresh make the world of Lemony Snicket seem a bit less "unfortunate." Reviewed by: Mechele R. Dillard

The claim on the back of "The Truth Behind A Series of Unfortunate Events: Eyeballs, Leeches, Hypnotism, and Orphans--Exploring Lemony Snicket's World" is that this volume is the "ultimate unauthorized companion guide to the facts behind Lemony Snicket's wild world." Since this is the only one I have seen it is hard to say whether that is hyperbole or not. What Lois Gresh has done in this book is to look beneath the fiction into the realities of the Lemony Snicket universe. Violet Baudelaire likes to invent things, so Gresh explains how to build a telephone and a hot-air balloon mobile home and throws in some fascinating tidbits about who really invented the telephone and little-known facts about hot-air balloons. Young readers will also be able to read about real child inventors and their amazing inventions. The information provided is much more expansive than you would find in an annotated edition of something, but that is the general intent. Gresh has authored books on "The Computers of Star Trek" and "The Science of Superheroes," so stopping and taking time to explain things we just take for granted in enjoying stories is apparently her forte. So there are chapters devoted to "What Happens to Real Orphans," "Strange Snakes, Lizards, and Toads," "Martial Law: Can an Old Geezer Marry a Young Girl?", "Picking Locks, Horseradish, and Peppermints," "Work, Slave Work! Child Labor Laws," "Crabs, Fungi, Staples, and Leeches," and "I Want to Be Someone Else." If you have read the Lemony Snicket books then you will know which chapters look at the "reality" behind which books (e.g., the last in the list explains how Count Olaf would disguise himself in the real world). Then there are chapters that are devoted to testing your knowledge about "Really Bad Grammar" and "Fancy-Pants Words." You can also test yourself to see if you are as smart as Violet and Klaus (or Sunny when she was one) on questions that are related to what happens in the series and other that are not. For many readers what their enjoyment of this book will not come down to how it conveniently provides information about topics of interest regarding the world of Lemony Snicket, but how much the attempt to emulate the narrative style and look of the books bothers them. The book is the same dimension as the Lemony Snicket volumes, but without the rough edges of the paper. The illustrations are done in pencil in the style of Brett Helquist and as long as they are not showing any of the Baudelair orphans they are decent enough (I suppose from a legal standpoint none of the images are "really" of any of the characters in the books but that little point of irony does not help this volume). Most importantly (or not) Gresh tries to adopt the writing style of Lemony Snicket, but without the same sort of success (i.e., she tries too hard). This book works better when she is just providing information and leaving the comedy to the original stories because this is not an unpleasant

What makes the Lemony Snicket series of Unfortunate Events so entertaining is that they are books seemingly aimed at children and that yet can be read by adults as well, with as much pleasure if not more than children. These short novels are filled with sly jokes, clever asides, and enough silly situations that they cannot be mistaken for anything serious. That's what makes them so funny - they are an inside joke and all of the readers of the books are insiders. Reading Lois Gresh's wonderfully inventive "The Truth Behind A Series of Unfortunate Events" is a treat. The book provides an intelligent and yet funny look at the oddball facts and concepts mentioned in the books but never completely explained. Unlike the previous reviewer, you need a sense of humor to enjoy this book. It takes the Lemony Snicket world and examines it under a microscope. It's not meant to be a substitute for a Lemony Snicket book but a companion to all the Lemony Snicket books and it does a great job at being that. This is a book that any fan of the LS series who wonders about the many odd topics mentioned in the adventures but never explained will cherish. It is not a book for adults who possess no sense of curiosity. This is a book I think both kids and adults will enjoy.

I've read all of Lemony Snicket's books. I love every one of them. This new book by Lois Gresh is the perfect companion to Lemony's books. The Truth Behind a Series of Unfortunate Events tells you everything you ever wondered about - like Count Olaf's tattoo and all the eye motifs in the series: what does the eye mean and why does Lemony use it so much? This book gives you some bigtime clues based on real facts. How could Count Olaf possibly appear as so many different people, both men and women of all ages in all kinds of occupations, and actually get away with it? This book tells you how he does it! This is a book for kids who want to know how Lemony came up with Violet's inventions, how to pick locks, how someone can be allergic to peppermints, what happens to real orphans, and whether disgusting ancient guardian Counts can really marry young girls who are supposedly in their legal care. This is a 'tell all' book. If you're a Lemony Snicket fan, then you need this book.

I have read all the books in the Lemony Snicket series, and I have loved them. The same is true for this book. Picking it up, one may be skeptical, but once you get into it, you cannot put it down. I received the book three days ago, and I have already read it three times. It has a wide variety of interesting and fun facts that you can share with all your friends. Aside from those, this book is very humorous. A few of my friends have picked up a copy of the book also, and they all love it! You learn new things about the series you would have never known had it not been for this book. The author bedazzles the reader with a wide variety of facts about the series and exciting spin-offs. I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoyed the series, and you should go pick up a copy of it NOW!