What Parents Should Know
Snicket's ability to pile crisis upon catastrophe upon bum
luck without the story collapsing under the weight of its
relentless misfortune is brilliant, and a surefire
attention-catcher.
Common Sense Media Review
This is the least subtle book thus far in Snicket's "Series
of Unfortunate Events." Rather than let ideas of right and
wrong quietly percolate up through his story, as he has in the
previous two volumes, he spells them out as though his audience
is dimwitted. "They understood that Aunt Josephine was more
concerned with grammatical mistakes than with saving the lives
of three children. They understood that she was so wrapped up
in her own fears that she had not given a thought to what might
have happened to them." Snicket gets preachy and his readers
get a lecture.
Nevertheless, THE WIDE WINDOW has plenty going for it, including some of the most exciting scenes in the series so far. High drama is produced by a small sailboat in the middle of a hurricane, a gratifying example of code-breaking, a heart-stopping attack by a swarm of leeches, and the treacherous plots hatched by Olaf that must be artfully countered one after the other by the children. And there is the pleasingly black humor that is Snicket's earmark, served up by the grave narrator.
When an 8-year-old said, in the middle of a reading, "This would make as good a movie as The Addams Family" it was clear he was tuned to the book's wavelength.
Earlier books in the series are The Bad Beginning and The Reptile RoomVoyage of the Frog.
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