The Austere Academy

Well, actually, this deserves a 3.5 stars. I usually don't read non-fiction but I wanted to change my reading and I decided to read this one. I won't talk about the narrative or the style of writing because this was very easy to read and also extremely realistic. The stories of all those children who live in India have made me realize how lucky I am and my pains and sufferings are nothing compared with they problems. If you read this book and don't feel anything, maybe it's because you have never been in those children's shoes.

Why I put a lower rate? Because I didn't like that kind of ‘advertising' about the GFA. I know that the main purpose of this book is call to others to help this children but in sometimes, I felt like I was reading a newspaper.

By other side, I was touched by the stories and I thank God for the Bridge of hope centers, because they're the hands who help those people.

Lemony Snicket can do no wrong. As depressing and gloomy as the story lines may be, Snicket has an entertaining and dry (humor) style that makes for an interesting read. I read most of the books in this series in middle school and still enjoy them as a 23-year-old graduate student. In this book, in particular, I love the elements of absurdity incorporated into the Baudelaire's “prism of experience” at the boarding school. Sunny, a baby, is forced to serve as secretary to the vice-principal. The three children are provided with abysmal housing in the form of the orphan shack, infested with tan fungus and toe-biting crabs. Onto #6!

De Baudelaires worden naar een kostschool gestuurd, de Prufrock Preparatory School. Ze ontmoeten er een gemeen kind, Carmelia Spats, Vice Principal Nero is ook een akelig mens maar hij belooft Count Olaf ver weg te houden. En dan komt er een nieuwe turnleraar, Coach Genghis, die ze meteen herkennen als Graaf Olaf maar niemand anders. Ze hebben ook vrienden gemaakt, de Quagmire-drieling (ouders en 1/3 van de drieling ook overleden in een brand). Shenanigans, Coach Genghis die de Baudelaires de hele nacht laat rondjes lopen en Nero die Sunny bureauwerk laat doen, de Quagmires die zich vermommen als Klaus en Violet, uiteindelijk valt Olaf door de mand, maar hij ontsnapt met de Quagmires.

Net voor ze verdwijnen, roept Duncan Quagmire dat de Baudelaires in zijn notities moeten kijken, en iets van V.F.D. Maar Olaf steelt de notitites en de kinderen moeten op zoek naar een nieuwe voogd.

4.4

The best ASOUE book I've read so far. I love how the story is starting to have a bit of depth in it. For instance, we were introduced to the Quagmire twins (supposed to be triplets) who were also orphans whose parents died in a fire along with their third sibling. Vice Principal Nero was also very despicable, as well as the cheeky Carmelita Spats. Basically, the misfortunes of the Baudelaires are getting worse in every book. The vocabulary was excellent, it has characters that could potentially still be around in future books, and it gives the series new places to go. A book in the series you should look forward to! Now I'm off to read the sixth book (and probably the last one I'll read since I just decided to take a break from this series) - “The Ersatz Elevator”.

4.5:

The children made some friends!! I might cry. Absolutely delighted at the introduction of the Quagmire triplets, after all the gloom and depression of the previous installment, this was like a breath of fresh air.

Once again, we were burdened with the usual Olaf shenanigans, an awful prick for a guardian, and clueless, no good Mr. Poe doing nothing once again. But I see a plot peeking around the corner! Isadora and Duncan went digging for dirt on Olaf, and it looks like they found something worth destroying their notebooks for — I wonder what that was about.

(Olaf making the children run laps for hours on end just might be the cruelest thing in the series so far. Also I despised Nero, but when he said Sunny was to be his secretary, I cackled for like, three straight minutes).