The Austere Academy: No.5 (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

by Lemony Snicket (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $3.50

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.28

  There is nothing to be found in the pages of A Series of Unfortunate Events but misery and despair. You still have time to choose another international best-seller to read. But if you must know what unpleasantries befall the charming and clever Baudelaire children read on...Within the chapters of The Austere Academy the children face snapping crabs, strict punishments, dripping fungus, comprehensive exams, violin recitals, S.O.R.E. and the metric system. With 5 million copies sold in the UK alone, one might consider Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events to make him one of the most successful children's authors of the past decade. We, however, consider these miserable so-called adventure stories and the Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey that accompanied the books for children as nothing more than a dreadful mistake.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.44

  The three Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus and little Sunny, arrive at the Prufrock Preparatory School, only to be met by the unpleasant bully, Carmelita Spats. The children must to the Orphan's Shack where fungus grows from the ceiling and territorial crabs scuttle over the floor. Vice Principal Nero demands that the whole school attends his six-hour violin recitals every evening, or every child must give him a bag of candy. He employs Sunny as his secretary while the other Baudelaires are sent to awful classes, listening to dull stories or endlessly measuring household items. But there's a surprising island of happiness for the Baudelaires, they met Isadora and Duncan, the two remaining siblings of the Quagmire triplets who also have large fortune after their parents too died in a terrible fire. The happiness doesn't last long, however. Count Olaf returns in the guise of the new gym teacher, Coach Genghis. Under his evil eye, the orphans are forced to run through the night, as well as taking part in their day-time classes. Desperately thinking of a plan to escape from Count Olaf, the Quagmires offer to stand in for the Baudelaires on their night-time running laps, using a bag of flour in place of Sunny. But Count Olaf kidnaps the Quagmires instead, hoping to steal their fortune as well as the Baudelaires', and Violet, Klaus and Sunny are left with the cryptic final message from Duncan - the letters V. F. D. - and the horrible knowledge their new friends are in the unpleasant clutches of Count Olaf.