Netflix + Series of Unfortunate Events = The Best?

A Series of Unfortunate Events is coming to Netflix?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

“I can’t believe it,” Snicket said from an undisclosed location. "After years of providing top-quality entertainment on demand, Netflix is risking its reputation and its success by associating itself with my dismaying and upsetting books."

I am so happy. If this is not real I am going to go cry. The worst thing about growing up was that, unlike J.K. Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter series to grow up with us, Lemony Snicket wrote all 13 of his books for the same age group, so I grew out of them mid-series. Don't get me wrong, I eventually read all of them, but it is not the same to read A Series of Unfortunate Events as a 5th grader than it is after you've just read The Bell Jar in 9th grade. And you know it.

Lemony Snicket is the pen name of author Daniel Handler, who begins the series like this:

Dear Reader,

I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.

In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.

It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

The series is deliciously smart and dark and funny. You should read them. The movie was pretty horrible which was sad because Jim Carey and Meryl Streep and a bunch of other fabulous people were in it. It's a testament to the books and my laziness that I sometimes still watch it, as I no longer own the books. I did, however, read a picture book by Lemony Snicket awhile ago.

Hopefully your reading will go better than the last time I picked up a book just because they made a TV show out of it, "so it must be good." 

Found the news here/on the facebook.
Or you can read about it on NPR, where I found out that they don't even have a director yet so don't get too excited!

Picture Books

I figure if I'm going to school for teaching, I should bring something to the table in September when I start student teaching - yikes!! So I started reading some books. If you happen to have little ones or little ones you can borrow and read to, here's some books:

Cute book, loved the illustrations. I turned it into a reader's theatre script for my Acting Basics class (ages 8+) and also used it to introduce the idea of monologues and auditions. My 13-year-old was not impressed, but the 8-10s loved it.

Probably could make a good introduction to an art activity where they need to fill the whole page with color or use color in a creative way.

"Laszlo is afraid of the dark. The dark is not afraid of Laszlo. 

Laszlo lives in a house. The dark lives in the basement. 

One night, the dark comes upstairs to Laszlo's room, and Laszlo goes down to the basement.

This is the story of how Laszlo stops being afraid of the dark."

- from GoodReads, too good a description not to steal. I loved this short, short book.

 This is a fabulous historical fiction book about Magulu, a nine-year-old girl who is sold into slavery. On the ship, there's a rebellion, the ship is captured, and all who participated in the mutiny are brought to trial. Magulu and the other children are brought in as witnesses. Its a wonderful account of pain, hope, and triumph. 

This is my favorite. Don't let the cover fool you, it's a wonderful book about conflict resolution and friendship. Adorbs.