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Reviewer: Eagan Z. 12

This book is a sequel to The Bad Beginning and The Reptile Room. The Baudelaires now have another new guardian. Her name is Aunt Josephine, and she lives on the edge of a cliff overlooking Lake Lachrymose. She also has a very wide window looking out over the lake that is just big enough for a person who might be willing to jump out of it!

Aunt Josephine worries about almost everything! She thinks that the stove will burst into flames if she touches it. She is worried that guests will trip over the welcome mat and break their necks. She thinks that if you even get close to the refrigerator that it will crush you flat. She thinks that if you answer the phone you will be electrocuted. And she never uses her crystal doorknob on the front door, because she is afraid that if it gets too hot that the doorknob will explode into a million pieces, shooting in all directions. Aunt Josephine also thinks that grammar is everything! Needless to say, Aunt Josephine does not make a good first impression on the Baudelaire children.

One day while Aunt Josephine and the Baudelaires are grocery shopping, they bump into a man with a wooden left leg named Captain Sham. But the Baudelaires know this is Count Olaf in disguise. Aunt Josephine is fooled by Count Olaf's disguise, and insists that Captain Sham come over for dinner. While Captain Sham and Aunt Josephine are having dinner, the Baudelaires finish shopping. By the time they are finished dinner, Captain Sham leaves and calls Aunt Josephine on the telephone a couple minutes later. He then reveals his real identity to her and she is terrified. After that, he tells her to write a suicide letter and jump out the wide window of her house, or else he will throw her out. So Aunt Josephine writes the suicide letter and throws a stool out of the window instead. She then hides herself in Curdled Cave, a cave alongside Lake Lachrymose.

By the time the Baudelaires get back to Aunt Josephine's house with the groceries, Aunt Josephine is gone. They eventually find her and attempt to rescue her. But on their way back their boat is being eaten by the Lachrymose Leeches! Then Count Olaf appears with his sailboat, pushes Aunt Josephine into the lake where she is eaten by the leeches, and Olaf kidnaps the Baudelaires and sails off to shore. Will Count Olaf keep the Baudelaires in his clutches? There's only one way to find out. You must read the book!!

On a scale from 1-10 (10 being the best) I rate this book an 8 because it is fun to read. I recommend this book to people who enjoy a lot of misery and hopeless scenes.

Spring 2005

Reviewer: Danny S. '12

In The Wide Window, the third book of a twelve-book-series called "A Series Of Unfortunate Events," things do not get any better for the three Baudelaire Orphans, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. The three are sent to live on Lake Lachrymose with someone named Aunt Josephine, a women who means well but worries a lot. For instance, she worries that if she picks up the telephone, she will get electrocuted. Also, she won't cook any hot meals. One day, when they are down at the market they see someone and know right away it is Count Olaf, an evil person who wants to steal the Baudelaire fortune. The orphans are wondering what his plan is to get their fortune. What is his plan? This will be answered only if you read the The Wide Window.

Winter 2005

Winter 2003

Dear Reader,

The book I'm telling you about is called THE WIDE WINDOW. It is about the three orphans that go to live with their Aunt Josephine in a house on the top of a moutain above a lake full of man eating leeches! So when a sailor by the name of Captain Sham arrives he takes Aunt Josephine's breath away... and maybe her life !!!

Read the book to find out ...

...and beware of boats and man eating leeches.

If you've never read any of the books in the Series of Unfortunate Events, you may not want to read this one because it is a very unpleasant book.   Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire live with their Aunt Josephine.  She is so cautious that she won't even use the telephone or the stove, but she is an expert in grammar. Aunt Josephine lives above Lake Lachrymose and is very scared of it because her husband had fallen out of one of their windows and drowned.  She finds a boyfriend only he is ... can't tell you, so read the book to find out how Count Olaf still manages to make life unpleasant for the Baudelaire children.

Spring 2002

The  Baudelaire orphans go to live with Aunt Josephine who is afraid of everything.   For instance, she's afraid of her own welcome mat at her front door,  the telephone,  her heater,  her stove,  and most of all,  Lake Lachrymose.  She believes they are all dangerous and can harm her.  This book is full of surprises and lots of adventure.  It is filled with cliffhangers.  The evil Count Olaf and his theater troupe continue trying to steal the Baudelaire fortune.  I would highly recommend this book,  if you enjoy suspense and adventure.

Spring 2002

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny live with Aunt Josephine in her house way up on the hill.  This time Count Olaf disguises himself as Captain Sham.  He has a wooden leg since the tattoo of an eye on his ankle has given Mr. Poe proof  that he is Count Olaf.  Aunt Josephine is a grammar freak and corrects anything wrong.  She writes a note telling the children she will be leaving them to Captain Sham.  They know she wouldn't do this to them.  They're positive that Captain Sham has forced her to write the note.  When they read another note left behind,  they find mistakes in the grammar.  They know she has done this on purpose.  When Klaus looks at all of the mistakes in grammar,  they spell Curdled Cave. They research Curdled Cave and find out it's a cave near Lake Lachrymose.  Will Klaus, Violet, and Sunny be able to save their aunt?  Will Captain Sham, a.k.a. Count Olaf, catch them?  Can they prove to Mr. Poe that Captain Sham is really Count Olaf before it's too late?  Read the book to find out.

I recommend this book because it  has lots of adventure and makes you want to read more in the series. 

Winter 2002

The Baudelaire children go to live with yet another relative.  This time their guardian is a little odd.  Aunt Josephine is afraid of practically everything that isn't scary.  For instance, she's afraid of the telephone because she thinks it could electrocute you, which is possible, but not likely.  And Count Olaf is still after them.  This time he almost manages to get his grasp on the children.  They are in a sticky situation because they have no evidence to prove that he is Count Olaf.  This time he has a peg on his left leg, hiding his tattoo.  Luckily, Sunny looks really hard at his peg.  And thank goodness she has sharp teeth, because she cracks open his peg and there right in front of everyone is the tattoo.  Unfortunately, Count Olaf manages to escape ... again.

Winter 2002

Reviewer:   Alexandra C. ‘08

The Wide Window is the third book in the series, "A Series of Unfortunate Events." The main characters are orphans. In this book, the Baudelaire children are sent to live with their Aunt Josephine who is sacred of everything. She refuses to turn on anything electric or even to pick up the phone. The Baudelaires aren’t having a very good time with her and when they think things couldn’t get any worse, they find that Count Olaf, an evil man, is lurking somewhere nearby. Will Aunt Josephine believe them? Will Count Olaf succeed in stealing their fortune? Will this be another "unfortunate event?" To find out, you must read this book.

Spring 2001

The Baudelaire orphans – Violet, Klaus and Sunny
Live lives filled with misery, but their tale is somehow funny.
They set off to live with their aunt consumed by fear
Of telephones, doorknobs, and when realtors are near.
The villain, Count Olaf, returns disguised as Captain Sham.
He’s desperate for their fortune and devises and evil scam.
The orphan’s aunt disappears and first they think she’s dead.
Then they realize there’s a message hidden in what she said.
The children bravely sail right through a hurricane
To save an aunt who’s neurotic and maybe even insane.
They sail on a lake and see a disgusting sight,
Thousands of leeches with voracious appetites.
And though the ending’s sad – they still have no father or mother,
The orphans happily realize that they’re lucky to have each other.

Spring 2001

In the third book of the "Series of Unfortunate Events", The Wide Window, the Baudelaire orphans continue to experience misery in their lives as they move in with their neurotic Aunt Josephine on a lake filled with ravenous leeches. Once again the three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny must use their wits and talents to escape the clutches of the evil Count Olaf. Like the other books in the series, The Wide Window, though predictable, is a light, fast-moving, and humorous book.