The Grim Grotto

October 1, 2004
Highly anticipated sequels hit the shelves this month. In the new installment in Lemony Snicket's bestselling series, A Series of Unfortunate Events #11: The Grim Grotto, illus. by Brett Helquist, the Baudelaire siblings find themselves aboard the submarine Queequeg, under the command of Captain Widdershins. Their search for the inexplicably important "sugar bowl" leads them to the Gorgonian Grotto, an undersea cave filled with malevolent mushrooms, only to face capture by Count Olaf. .

October 1, 2004
Tim Curry, whose appropriately unctuous and sometimes slimy delivery are a hallmark of the audiobook versions of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events titles, is thankfully up to his old tricks. Curry returns on the 11th installment, The Grim Grotto, to play Snicket, Count Olaf and all the gang with welcome flair. The enhanced CD features word games, photos and artwork when played on a personal computer. Curry also returns as the linchpin on a new, multivoice recording of The Bad Beginning, the first book in the series, which ties in to the feature film release of Paramount/Nickelodeon/Dreamwork's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. .

November 15, 2004
Gr. 4-6. With the movie poised for release and a wealth of promotional materials (including editions of the books with disappointing photos on the covers) already available, it wouldn't do to ignore the latest book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Snicket reconnects with the Baudelaire orphans precisely where he left them, tobogganing down the Stricken Stream, and then sends them down under the waves in a submarine escapade, during which, of course, they encounter the evil Orlof and his cronies. Snicket, who hasn't lost his touch for peculiar, imaginative setups, injects plenty of wry asides and witty vocabulary enrichment. His villains remain deliciously villainous, and the long-suffering Baudelaires still accept struggle without complaint. This time, though, Snicket adds a few characters who don't quite fit the molds, and this is the first book to hint that the unfortunate events that have dogged the kids through 10 previous adventures may be coming to an end. Book the Twelfth will surely provide more clues.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2005
The Baudelaire siblings continue running from evil Count Olaf in this eleventh volume. Though the premise never changes and the authorial voice remains as self-consciously roguish as ever, this episode places the orphans in a new setting (a submarine), where they struggle with a new crisis (baby Sunny nearly expires from poison mushrooms), and an eventual happy ending is hinted at.

(Copyright 2005 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)