Product Description

Dear Reader,

Like handshakes, house pets, or raw carrots, many things are preferable when not slippery. Unfortunately, in this miserable volume, I am afraid that Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire run into more than their fair share of slipperiness during their harrowing journey up -- and down -- a range of strange and distressing mountains.

In order to spare you any further repulsion, it would be best not to mention any of the unpleasant details of this story, particularly a secret message, a toboggan, a deceitful trap, a swarm of snow gnats, a scheming villain, a troupe of organized youngsters, a covered casserole dish, and a surprising survivor of a terrible fire.

Unfortunately, I have dedicated my life to researching and recording the sad tale of the Baudelaire Orphans. There is no reason for you to dedicate yourself to such things, and you might instead dedicate yourself to letting this slippery book slip from your hands into a nearby trash receptacle, or deep pit.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21215 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Released on: 2003-09-23
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Amazon.com Review
What would you do if you found yourself trapped in a runaway caravan hurtling down a precipitous mountain slope? Fourteen-year-old Violet, the oldest orphan of the three Baudelaires, decides to try to slow the velocity of the caravan with a drag-chute invention involving a viscous combination of blackstrap molasses, maple syrup, maraschino liqueur, peanut butter, etc. If plummeting to their death weren't scary enough, Violet and her brother Klaus have been separated from Sunny, their baby sister who is in a car headed in the opposite direction up the mountain with the "facinorous" Count Olaf, his "villainous and stylish" girlfriend Esmé Squalor, and their creepy sidekicks. Do Violet and Klaus find Sunny on the mountain? How will they survive the treacherous, snow-covered peaks with not much more than a ukulele and a bread knife, especially in the face of the "organized, ill-tempered" snow gnats? Will they finally unearth the mystery of the V.F.D.? Will they find out if one of their parents is alive after all? The suspense! As ever, the Baudelaires' unfolding tale of woe is sprinkled with Lemony Snicket's ridiculous, hilarious observations such as "Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like." The tenth book in The Series of Unfortunate Events takes readers through the Mortmain Mountains to the churning waters of the Stricken Stream with all the coexistent horror and silliness a Snicket fan could hope for along the way. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

From Booklist
Gr. 3-5. It's clear throughout that Snicket hasn't lost his sense of the absurd or his momentum in this "Book the Tenth." As in previous episodes, the adventures of the Baudelaire sibs spin out with the zest and cliff-hanger dramatics of old-fashioned serials. Left hurtling down a mountain at the close of The Carnivorous Carnival (2002), Klaus and Violet concentrate here on saving themselves; rescuing baby Sunny, who is once more in the clutches of the evil Count Olaf; and continuing their campaign to put a stop to Olaf's evil doings once and for all. Of course, they have their work cut out for them, but with a surprising ally, they stumble through the usual assortment of clues and secret messages that actually seem to get them one step closer to their ultimate goal. Characters are true to form, ridiculous and fun, and, once again, the wry telling is pitch-perfect, with plenty of the joyful wordplay and the quirky imaginative touches Snicket's legions of fans expect. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Lemony Snicket was born before you were, and is likely to die before you as well. His family has roots in a part of the country which is now underwater, and his childhood was spent in the relative splendor of the Snicket Villa which has since become a factory, a fortress and a pharmacy and is now, alas, someone else's villa.

To the untrained eye, Mr. Snicket's hometown would not appear to be filled with secrets. Untrained eyes have been wrong before. The aftermath of the scandal was swift, brutal and inaccurately reported in the periodicals of the day. It is true, however, that Mr. Snicket was stripped of several awards by the reigning authorities, including Honorable Mention, the Grey Ribbon and First Runner Up. The High Council reached a convenient if questionable verdict and Mr. Snicket found himself in exile.

Though his formal training was chiefly in rhetorical analysis, he has spent the last several eras researching the travails of the Baudelaire orphans. This project, being published serially by HarperCollins, takes him to the scenes of numerous crimes, often during the off-season. Eternally pursued and insatiably inquisitive, a hermit and a nomad, Mr. Snicket wishes you nothing but the best.

Customer Reviews

Lemony Snicket strikes again!
Though this book was very anticipated, it doesn't meet certain expectations and in my opinion, not really the best of the series.

I think Violet's inventions in this book weren't very fascinating as in the other books... or Klaus' researchings... and I didn't like the fact that Sunny and the elder Baudelaires were separated so much of the time. Definitely not one of the best...

But still, it is Lemony Snicket.

I read this book in a hour and my head was spinning after it. First someone the orphans hoped never to see again returns (No, it's not Count Olaf, though of course, he's still there.) Then a surprisng survivor of the fire... very shocking indeed. Additionally, 2 new VERY mysterious characters... and "the last safe place."

SO MUCH of V.F.D's secrets are revealed in this book, but not all of them.

If you haven't read the earlier books of the series, you really want to read THOSE first before this one. If you HAVE read the other books of the series, BUY THIS BOOK NOW! I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Okay, I'm ready for Book the Eleventh now. The mystery of V.F.D. is killing me.

Another brilliant Snicket installment!
This book is amazing! Not only does it have the usual dose of the incomprable Snicket's wit, but quite possibly the best-crafted and most exciting plot so far in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Its infinate twists and turns are sure to give immense delight to anyone, as they did to me, and leave the reader anxious to find out what happens next. There's a shock near the middle of the book that is absolutely mind-blowing--unexpected yet logical. And it shines further light into VFD, and FINALLY, we're getting a clearer picture of what the thing is, what it does, and what has happened to it. Also, where I felt the other books were short and over far too quickly, this one (though it still has the same ridiculously large font) actually seems novel length and gives justice to the story. I can't recommend this book enough! Read the others first, don't take the "unfortunate" aspect too seriously, and enjoy this one as I did!

With all due respect,
A Lemony Snicket fan

Buy this book, however much its possession may imperil you
The Slippery Slope is the latest installment--the tenth thirteen-chaptered book in a series that will eventually comprise thirteen books--in Lemony Snicket's *Series of Unfortunate Events.* The books are the product of Snicket's tireless research into the wretched lives of the three Baudelaire orphans, fourteen-year-old Violet, an inventor, her well-read brother Klaus, and their preternaturally accomplished baby sister Sunny. The siblings are orphaned in the first book in the series: as they are later informed by the apparently well-meaning but ineffectual Mr. Poe, the executor of their parents' considerable estate, a terrible fire consumes the children's home one day while they are off at the beach. The circumstances of the fire are, one must conclude, highly suspicious.

Mr. Poe's efforts to place the siblings with a guardian land them first in the squalid home of a distant relative, a uni-browed actor by the name of Count Olaf, who begins scheming at once to make off with the Baudelaire fortune. Olaf's villainous activity continues throughout the series and very often involves his employment of outlandish disguises which no one but the Baudelaires is capable of seeing through. ("Some people called this man wicked. Some called him facinorous, which is a fancy word for 'wicked.' But everyone called him Count Olaf, unless he was wearing one of his ridiculous disguises and making people call him a false name.") As Olaf's girlfriend puts it in The Slippery Slope, "money and personal satisfaction" make Olaf's relentless efforts to seize the Baudelaires' fortune worth the trouble: "Once we have our hands on the Baudelaire fortune, we'll have enough money to live a life of luxury and plan several more treacherous schemes!"

Olaf's villainy is a constant throughout the series, and so is the author's linguistic playfulness--his clever aphorisms ("Taking one's chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck") ; his amusing verbal tics ("a phrase which here means..."). There are also hints throughout the series about the enigmatic, rarely photographed Snicket's curious life. References to his "pulling aside a bearskin rug in order to access a hidden trapdoor in the floor", for example, or to spending months on a mountain with "only a lantern and a rhyming dictionary for company" slip into the narrative. Snicket is evidently on the run--from whom it is not clear--and so he wisely employs as his legal, literary, and social representative a certain Daniel Handler, who is himself, as coincidence would have it, the author of novels for adults.

I should confess that I am half in love with Mr. Snicket, and I would pledge myself to him eternally were it not for a previous commitment of my own and Lemony's apparent devotion to the deceased Beatrice, to whom he dedicates each of his books (for example, "To Beatrice--darling, dearest, dead"). But I *can* pledge myself to the task of promoting his research into the Baudelaires' lives, and urge you to buy Snicket's books, however filled with horrors they may be, and however much your possession of them may imperil you.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece