A Series of Unfortunate Events

After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children. They are charming, and resourceful, and have pleasant facial features. Unfortunately, they are exceptionally unlucky. Imagine tales so terrible...

Lost at sea, the Baudelaire orphans, along with the evil Count Olaf, wash up on the shore of an island populated by an oddly placid group of inhabitants, and they try to decide whether or not they are truly safe.

Still pursued by the evil Count Olaf, the Baudelaire orphans attempt to reach a very important VFD meeting, but first they must travel in a rattletrap submarine to the Gorgonian Grotto, a dangerous underwater cave, in search of the sugar bowl.

"I hope, for your sake, that you have not chosen to read this book because you are in the mood for a pleasant experience. If this is the case, I advise you to put this book down instantaneously, because of all the books describing the unhappy lives of the Baudelaire orphans, The Miserable Mill might be the unhappiest yet. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are sent to Paltryville to work in a lumber mill, and they find disaster and misfortune lurking...

" ... Like the movie, this book tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children, who despite being pleasant lead unpleasant lives. From the very beginning of this volume, when the children are driving down a bad-smelling road toward a house full of mysterious beasts, continuing on to the last page of this distressing story, disaster lurks at their heels. Unlike the movie, however, this book does not contain moving pictures"--Jacket flap.

Under a new government program based on the saying "It takes a village to raise a child, " the Baudelaire orphans are adopted by an entire town, with disastrous results.