The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

The Locale: Smith and Elizabeth’s Home

The Book: Take three little orphaned children, one nasty distant relative, a huge inherence fortune and the mind of a great author and what do you get? Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events first book called The Bad Beginning.
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are very unlucky children, and they are not typical kids. Violet, the oldest, loves to invent new things and always has her favorite ribbon tied up in her hair. Klaus, loves to read and has a very good memory, too. The youngest out of all, Sunny, loves to chew on things with her very two sharp teeth.

OMG! Ms. Hetrick is Count Olaf in Disguise!

The siblings are walking down the Briny Beach when they are approached by Mr. Poe, the man in charge of their parent’s fortune, who has very unfortunate news. The children’s parents have died in a fire, and they must go live with Count Olaf, an uncle the Baudelaires have never heard of. With Count Olaf as their new guardian, the children go through some misfortunate events, a series of unfortunate events that continue for thirteen books. Pick up The Bad Beginning if you dare.

It's Aunt Josephine!  Use good grammar!

The Fun: Despite the warning of dreadful food and drink, moms and daughters did NOT choose to attend a happier event Saturday meeting, appearing instead in costume, dressed as a character from book series.

Sweet Baby Sunny.  Watch your fingers!

• Smith as a white powdered faced lady, friend of Olaf 
• Elizabeth and TJ as Justice Strauss 
• Olivia as Aunt Josephine 
• Perri as Violet 
• Megan & Emma as a happier Violet, before the loss of her parents 
• Cassie as Violet in a scene from The Bad Beginning, bloody and injured from trying to save Sunny 
• Susan (Cassie’s Mom) as the evil Count Olaf 
• And Kate as Sunny, gnawing on a wooden spoon. 

The miserable meeting began with a competition between girls, a contest to see who read the most of the books in the series over the summer. There was a terrible tie between Kate and Perri, who had each read eight books and received a book store gift certificate as their reward.

Next the girls put their brains together to solve a group computer game of Hangman, guessing characters from the book.

Deep and dreadful discussions occurred as the girls answered questions posed by Elizabeth and the other Moms. Noting that our girls have been reading and meeting for a whole year, Brenda asked the girls to name what has been their favorite thing about being in book club and which book has been their favorite. While the favorite books varied, and many girls had a tough time picking one, some of the favorite things about being in book club were:

• Spending time with mom 
• Discussing the book with friends 
• Reading the books 
• Seeing friends once a month 
• Making new friends 
• Being with best friends 

The Food:

• Roast Beef Sandwiches - Count Olaf was expecting for Roast Beef for dinner but the Baudelaires whipped up and served pasta with Puttanesca Sauce instead. 
• Fruit with Brie Cheese 
• Potato Salad 
• Oatmeal Cookies - Instead of the dreadful oatmeal the Baudelaires had to eat daily at Count Olaf’s 
• Aqueous Martinis - Water with olives, the drinks served to the Baudelaires by Esme and Jerome Squalor in the sixth book, The Ersatz Elevator

The Vote: Perri's presented her three books.

• The BFG by Roald Dahl. 
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling 
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney 

After a count with heads down, The BFG and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules ties. At the suggestion of Brenda, the mom’s vote to break the tie, and The BFG wins. We will meet at Perri’s on October 30th, the day before Halloween.

Up Next: We meet next at Olivia and Susan’s home, on September 25th, to discuss The Magician’s Nephew, the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia Series, although not the first book written in the series, by C.S. Lewis.