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The Ersatz Elevator (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 6) (Hardcover)
by Lemony Snicket
| Category:
Ages 9-12, Family life |
| Market price: ¥ 148.00
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¥ 128.00
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 Good for Gifts |
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Author: Lemony Snicket
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub. in: February, 2001
ISBN: 0064408647
Pages: 272
Measurements: 8.1 x 5 x 1 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BC00428
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0064408646
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- MSL Picks -
In his 6th book, The Ersatz Elevator, Lemony Snicket continues to chronicle the tragic events of the three close siblings, Violet, Klaus, and the baby, Sunny. Once again, the Baudelaires face evil and must rely on one another to survive.
This is a very sad, but humorous, tale of adventure. In the words of the author, "there is nothing to be found in these pages but misery, despair, and discomfort, and you still have time to choose something else to read". (Back cover)
However, I have endured the tragic adventures of the Baudelaire orphans since the first book; where the Baudelaires lost their parents and home in a fire. I have come to adore the three children, and, so I chose to further read about them.
The Baudelaires make a very creative team. Violet is the inventor, Klaus is the researcher, and Baby Sunny, well she just likes to bite things-anything! The orphans continuously run into trouble that involve the evil Count Olaf, whom has been after their fortune since the first book. With the orphans' creativity, they can sometimes escape this evil man.
Lemony Snicket writes with a narrator's "voice" when describing the lives of the Baudelaires. He's very concerned about what he must report to the public as you can "hear" the concern as you read. Plus, there is no need for a dictionary; the author will define a questionable term as he writes. For example, "Violet said, ... `But they [fire tongs] still might come in handy for something. We don't know what we'll encounter in that hallway, and I don't want to come up shorthanded...' `Shorthanded' is a word which here means `unprepared', and Violet was thinking that three children alone in a dark hallway holding fire tongs were perhaps a bit more prepared than three children alone in a dark hallway with nothing at all." (Pg. 201)
All readers with a sense of adventure should enjoy "The Ersatz Elevator" as well as the rest of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket.
(From quoting Becki L Engstrom, USA)
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Lemony Snicket is the author of all 170 chapters in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Despite everything, he is still at large.
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From Publisher
Dear Reader,
If you have just picked up this particular book, then it is not too late to put it back down. Like the previous books in A Series of Unfortunate Events, there is nothing to be found in these pages but misery, despair, and discomfort, and you still have time to choose something else to read.
Within the chapters of this story, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire encounter a darkened staircase, a red herring, some friends in a dire situation, three mysterious initials, a liar with an evil scheme, a secret passageway, and parsley soda.
I have sworn to write down these tales of the Baudelaire orphans so the general public will know each terrible thing that has happened to them, but if you decide to read something else instead, you will save yourself from a heapful of horror and woe.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
Card catalog description
The woeful saga of the Baudelaire orphans continues as evil Count Olaf discovers their whereabouts at Esmâe Squalor's seventy-one bedroom penthouse and concocts a new plan for stealing their family fortune.
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Amazon.com (MSL quote), USA
<2008-02-20 00:00>
Fans of Lemony Snicket's wonderful Series of Unfortunate Events won't be surprised to find that in the sixth installment the three Baudelaire orphans' new home proves to be something of a mixed bag. As our ever sad but helpful narrator states, "Although 'a mixed bag' sometimes refers to a plastic bag that has been stirred in a bowl, more often it is used to describe a situation that has both good parts and bad parts. An afternoon at the movie theater, for instance, would be a mixed bag if your favorite movie were showing, but if you had to eat gravel instead of popcorn. A trip to the zoo would be a very mixed bag if the weather were beautiful, but all of the man-and woman-eating lions were running around loose." And so it is for the bad-luck Baudelaires. Their fancy new 71-bedroom home on 667 Dark Avenue is inhabited by Esmé Gigi Geniveve Squalor (the city's sixth most important financial advisor), and her kindly husband, Jerome, who doesn't like to argue. Esmé is obsessed by the trends du jour (orphans are "in"), and because elevators are "out," Sunny, Violet, and Klaus have to trudge up 66 flights of stairs to reach the Squalors' penthouse apartment. (Other unfortunate trends include pinstripe suits, aqueous martinis - water with a faint olive-y taste - parsley soda, and ocean decorations.)
As the book begins, the Baudelaires are not only frightened in anticipation of their next (inevitable) encounter with the evil, moneygrubbing Count Olaf but they are also mourning the disappearance of their dear new friends from The Austere Academy, the Quagmires. It doesn't take long for Olaf to show up in another of his horrific disguises... but if he is on Dark Avenue, what has he done with the Quagmires? Once again, the resourceful orphans use their unique talents (Violet's inventions, Klaus's research skills, and the infant Sunny's strong teeth) in a fruitless attempt to escape from terrible tragedy. Is there a gleam of hope for the orphans and their new friends? Most certainly not. The only thing we can really count on are more gloriously gloomy adventures in the seventh book, The Vile Village. (Ages 9 and older) - Karin Snelson |
School Library Journal (MSL quote), USA
<2008-02-20 00:00>
Gr 4-6-The resourceful, likable, but extremely unlucky orphans Violet, Klaus, and baby Sunny continue to flee from the clutches of the fortune-hunting, disguise-wearing Count Olaf. Also, they need to discover the whereabouts of their kidnapped friends, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, based on the puzzling clue "V.F.D." In Elevator, the three Baudelaires go to live in the penthouse of the trend-following Jerome and Esme Squalor, who adopt the children because orphans are "in." Despite the Baudelaires' resourcefulness, both Olaf and the Quagmires elude the grasp of the authorities due to the obtuseness of adults who, until it is too late, deny that terrible things can happen. In Village, the Baudelaires travel to V.F.D., a village that adopts the orphans based on the aphorism, "it takes a village to raise a child." They uncover the whereabouts of the Quagmires, but, as in the earlier books, they find neither respite nor peace from Count Olaf's machinations. Despite Snicket's artful turning of cliches on their well-worn heads, Elevator sometimes belabors the fallacy of fads at the expense of plot.
Nonetheless, the satiric treatment of adults' insistence upon decorum at the expense of truth is simultaneously satisfying and unsettling, as are the deft slams at slant journalism in Village. Arch literary allusions enhance the stories for readers on different levels. Despite Snicket's perpetual caveats to "put this book down and pick up another one," the Baudelaires are dynamic characters who inspire loyalty to the inevitable end of the series.
Farida S. Dowler, formerly at Bellevue Regional Library, WA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. |
AudioFile (MSL quote), USA
<2008-02-20 00:00>
In this sixth installment in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Baudelaire orphans once again face off against Count Olaf and deal with yet another set of inadequate guardians. Tim Curry knows just how to deliver Snicket's brand of alternately dry and over-the-top humor. The voices Curry creates are perfect. Count Olaf sounds just as evil and creepy as he is, and the rest of the adults sound just as evil or incompetent as they turn out to be. Curry's voices for the Baulderlaires themselves are more subtle, but still distinct. Curry even manages to carry off the touching moments of the book, as the children mourn the loss of their parents and their inability to save the Quagmire triplets. A.F. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine -This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
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Booklist (MSL quote), USA
<2008-02-20 00:00>
Reviewed with Lemony Snicket's The Vile Village.
Gr. 3-6. The Ersatz Elevator , "Book the Sixth," in A Series of Unfortunate Events, opens with the hapless Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, climbing up very dark stairs to the penthouse, the home of their new guardians, Mr and Mrs. Squalor. Genial Mr. Squalor seems genuinely delighted to have the children. Mrs. Squalor is a different matter: her life is ruled by "what's in" (aqueous martinis, pinstripe suits, and orphans) and "what's out" (alcoholic martinis, light, and elevators). Mr. Squalor's life is ruled by Mrs. Squalor. Children will enjoy the humorous barbs aimed at Mrs. Squalor and her ilk. The plot thickens with the reappearance of the nefarious Count Olaf, first in disguise to do his dastardly deeds and then unmasked to sneer at the Baudelaires. "Book the Seventh," The Vile Village , pokes wicked fun at the saying "It takes a village to raise a child" and at aphorisms in general: "The quoting of an aphorism, like the angry barking or a dog or the smell of overcooked broccoli, rarely indicates that something helpful is about to happen." Sure enough, the Baudelaires are soon adopted by an entire town whose inhabitants look upon the orphans as free labor. The Baudelaires struggle to solve the riddling messages that could lead them to rescue the Quagmire triplets, while trying to avoid being burned at the stake. Series fans will enjoy the quick pace, entertaining authorial asides, and over-the-top characterizations, and Brett Helquist's droll pencil drawings will add to their reading pleasure. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved. |
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