Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 09/15/2012 Oh, Lemony Snicket. How you confound us. For instance, in this book, the first of the All the Wrong Questions series, you give us so many unmoored happenings that readers may be inclined to believe they’ve landed in the middle of the second book. True, we will learn you’re an almost-13-year-old boy and that you escape your parents (or are they your parents?!) in a tea room to meet the woman with whom you’ll apprentice. And then you and S. Theodora Markson (what does the S stand for?) make your way to a sea town, now devoid of the ink for which it’s famous, and deserted by its residents, to find a statue rather like the Maltese Falcon, only it’s the Bombinating Beast. Someone is waiting for you back home, but who? What’s this secret program you seem to be a part of? Who cares about the Bombinating Beast? (You may take that comment any way you wish.) But just as when you were with those charming Baudelaire children, the adventures roll and one can only speculate what’s around the corner. Not that it will do any good. Kudos to Seth for the marvelous woodcut art. The pictures seem to hold clues. Or do they? HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Please, it’s Lemony Snicket. Enough said. - Copyright 2012 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 12/01/2012 Before becoming the chronicler of the Baudelaire children’s encounters with bad luck, Lemony Snicket, in this fictional autobiography, was a mere slip of a boy with “an unusual education” that eventually gained him an apprenticeship with an elite organization—though what that organization does is apparently not for the reader to know. Snicket begins his career of spying? crimefighting? secret-spilling? under the laughably inept guidance of S. Theodora Markson, whose services have been called upon to return a priceless statuette to its rightful owner in the town of Stain’d-by-the-Sea. Of course, there are far more sinister happenings going on in the small forgotten village, and a few narrow escapes, conveniently overheard conversations, and a named but as-of-yet-unseen villain ensure readers that this is a series opener. For those familiar with Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events (The Bad Beginning, BCCB 9/99, etc.), much here will be familiar: wacky names, a snarky tone, hapless grownups who are mostly indulged by the young heroes, and repetitive references to offscreen occurrences all appear here. Handler’s—er, Snicket’s writing has tightened up a bit, and the hero offers up some poignant moments of wisdom in the middle of all the madcap mayhem. Readers who balked at the thirteen-volume length of the Unfortunate Event series will be pleased to know there are only four books proposed for this series. Occasional cartoony illustrations, in shadowy tones of blue, gray, and black, reflect the kooky noir tone of the text. KQG - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 12/01/2012 Gr 4–7—In this "autobiographical" mystery, a teenaged Lemony Snicket recounts his early experiences as an apprentice to S. Theodora Markson, a pretentious woman who is not remotely as intelligent as she pretends. The two travel to the formerly seaside (but now not) town of Stain'd-by-the-Sea to investigate the theft of, what they are told, is a priceless heirloom. The identity of the culprit is obvious. Or is it? There's much more to this case than meets the eye. To uncover what's really going on, the inquisitive Snicket must figure out who he can trust and which questions to ask before it's too late. This fast-paced whodunit is likely to leave readers with questions of their own. Hopefully, they're the right questions-which, hopefully, will be answered in upcoming sequels. Written in Snicket's gloomy, yet undeniably charming, signature style and populated with wonderfully quirky characters, this enjoyable start of a new series will thrill fans of the author's earlier works and have even reluctant readers turning pages with the fervor of seasoned bookworms. A must-have.—Alissa J. Bach, Oxford Public Library, MI - Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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