g's bookshelf: a series of unfortunate events - the wide window

i have said it before and i will say it again.  these books are an absolute delight to read aloud.  i wish i could take a class from lemony snicket.  i want to know how he does it!  when i'm reading his books to gabriel i feel like i truly am the narrator of these tragic tales.

here, you try . . .

*******

"oh, i could never sell this house," aunt josephine said.  "i'm terrified of realtors."

the three baudelaire youngsters looked at one another surreptitiously, a word here which means, "while aunt josephine wasn't looking."  none of them had ever heard of a person who was frightened of realtors.

there are two kinds of fears: rational and irrational -- or, in simpler terms, fears that make sense and fears that don't.  for instance, the baudelaire orphans have a fear of count olaf, which makes perfect sense, because he is an evil man who wants to destroy them.  but if they were afraid of lemon meringue pie, this would be an irrational fear, because lemon meringue pie is delicious and has never hurt a soul.  being afraid of a monster under the bed is perfectly rational, because there may in fact be a monster under your bed at any time, ready to eat you all up, but a fear of realtors is an irrational fear.  realtors, as i'm sure you know, are people who assist you in the buying and selling of houses.  besides occasionally wearing an ugly yellow coat, the worst a realtor can do to you is show you a house that you find ugly, and so it is completely irrational to be terrified of them.

as violet, klaus, and sunny looked down at the dark lake and thought about their new lives with aunt josephine, they experienced a fear themselves, and even a worldwide expert on fear would have difficulty saying whether this was a rational fear or an irrational fear.  the baudelaires' fear was that misfortune would soon befall them.  on one hand, this was an irrational fear, because aunt josephine seemed like a good person, and count olaf was nowhere to be seen.  but on the other hand, the baudelaires had experienced so many terrible things that it seemed rational to think that another catastrophe was just around the corner.

*******

hear what i mean?  it just flows.

here's what g had to say (spoiler alert):

i thought it was a good book, because the house was on the side of a mountain.  i thought it was kind of weird that she would swim in that lake even though there were a kind of leeches and i thought it was pretty cool that there was a certain territory for the leeches.  it was pretty weird that sunny bit that count's leg in two and that that cave was for sale.  it was cool that she was actually writing a message in the will, but she faked her death.  instead of her jumping out the window, she threw a stool through the window and then she ran out the door and to the cave.  it was pretty cool that they were on the boat and the leeches were trying to break in and the leeches were trying to make a little hole and klaus would get the net and throw them off.  i wonder if the creature there is a he or a she.  that's it.  (to me: you remember the creature there?  wondering if it were a he or a she?  that would actually be very rude).