11. A Series of Unfortunate Events : The Reptile Room

by Lemony Snicket (190 pgs)

This is the 2nd book in the series and a rather large improvement over the first. The Baudelaire children find themselves in the care of yet another relative but this time the very pleasant Dr. Montgomery. Things soon go wrong however when Dr. Montgomery dies from an apparent snake bite and his mysterious assistant turns out to be someone the children recognize.

I tend to feel that these books are rather patronizing...Particularly the way the author insists on defining words for the readers, and the children's) 'benefit.' Luckily in this volume the children start getting annoyed with it too and that made it somewhat easier to get through.