The Austere Academy
Series of Unfortunate Events Series
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Brett Helquist
Book 5 in the Series of Unfortunate Events series
Pages: 221
Published: 2000
Age: 9+
Dear Reader,
If you are looking for a story about cheerful youngsters spending a jolly time at boarding school, look elsewhere. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent and resourceful children, and you might expect that they would do very well at school. Don't. For the Baudelaires, school turns out to be another miserable episode in their unlucky lives.
Truth be told, within the chapters that make up this dreadful story, the children will face snapping crabs, strict punishments, dripping fungus, comprehensive exams, violin recitals, S.O.R.E., and the metric system.
It is my solemn duty to stay up all night researching and writing the history of these three hapless youngsters, but you may be more comfortable getting a good night's sleep. In that case, you should probably choose some other book.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
About the Series of Unfortunate Events Series
Books in series order
- 1.The Bad Beginning: Or, Orphans!(1999)
- 2.The Reptile Room: Or, Murder!(1999)
- 3.The Wide Window: Or, Disappearance!(2000)
- 4.The Miserable Mill(2000)
- 5.The Austere Academy(2000)
- 6.The Ersatz Elevator(2001)
- 7.The Vile Village(2001)
- 8.The Hostile Hospital(2001)
- 9.The Carnivorous Carnival(2002)
- 10.The Slippery Slope(2003)
- 11.The Grim Grotto(2004)
- 12.The Penultimate Peril(2005)
- 13.The End(2006)
Reading age: 9+ years
This series should be read in order.
Imagine tales so terrible that as many as fifty million innocents have been ruined by them - tales so indelibly horrid that the New York Times bestseller list has been unable to rid itself of them for seven years...
This darkly humorous adventure series tells the miserable tale of the ill-fated Baudelaire siblings and their menacing relative Count Olaf. When the children receive the terrible news that their parents have died and their home has been burned to the ground, Violet, Klaus and Sunny are shipped off to live with a distant relative - the greedy and revolting Count Olaf - whose only interest lies in wheedling the poor children out of their substanial inheritance.
But unbeknowst to the conniving Count, these children are not so easily thwarted. Violet is one of the greatest inventors of her time, Klaus is a bookish-type with immense general knowledge and little Sunny possesses four razor-sharp teeth which she will not hesitate to use if threatened. The despicable Count has met his match with these three orphans! Read on if you dare...