My Series of Unfortunate Events

Do not be put off by the title, in fact no unfortunate events occurred at all. I had a wonderful day at the Rhode Island Festival of Children's Books & Authors which is sponsored by the Lincoln School in Providence. It was a day filled with presentations from the authors and illustrators, music from some of the best performers for children, and opportunities to buy books or create literature related crafts. All of these events only cost $5! The main reason why I attended is because one of my favorite authors was in attendance Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler.

At the beginning of the presentation the author decided to walk around the room with a somber face telling members of the audience that their laughter was not funny. Of course the audience is starting to laugh because they are uncomfortable with someone unhappily walking around staring at them, but that was just the beginning of the fun. He continued to walk to the stage and stare at one of the women who organized the event. Later she told us that the whole exchange was unexpected. She did a great job of adding to "Lemony Snicket"'s schtick. He told the audience that we should be greatly disappointed that Lemony Snicket will not be there that day. He had a letter from Snicket that he read to the audience filled with jokes about how the speaker who is present is very handsome.

Read very carefully...

Snicket staring at his audience.

Continuing on with the presentation he snatched a book from a poor unsuspecting student, chose four students to join him on stage, and began to make the children do embarrassing tasks. They read aloud a secret message from his new book while saying each line however "Snicket" told them to. All of the children committed and it was very cute.

Once the children returned to their seats he began to read Chapter 1 of "Who Could That Be at This Hour?". He found some unsuspecting victims to act out the story by having them flail their arms or stomp their feet. It was a great laugh!

The man himself!

At the actual book signing I brought "The Bad Beginning" and my sister brought "The End" to be signed. This series is very important to us because we were able to share it with one another and I was in 4th grade when the series first came out. While other children were devouring "Harry Potter" I found a greater link to these books. So now my book is signed and my 4th grade self is very happy.