Hank

Hank Reinhart
The Austre Acadamy
Lemony Snicket
Fantasy
Just Right
Just Finished
221

             I have just finished reading The Austre Acadamy by Lemony Snicket. This is the 5th book in the series called The Sereis Of Unfortunate Events. Like the other 4 books, Snicket makes the ending full of suspense and I couldn't wait to see what was on the next page. As Violet, Klaus, and Sunny continue for the 9th night in a row  a vigorous program called S.O.R.E (special, orphan, running, exercises) where thy run laps until sunrise with their so called gym teacher. But he is really Count Olaf in yet another disguise. To make things even worse for the Bauledaires they have not figured out Count Olafs evil plan to steal their enormous fortune left by their parents when they died in a fire. Also their friends, the Quagmires who are also orphans are trying to solve the case as well. As a result from running from dusk to dawn the Bauledaires are exhausted and can't focus in school. So now Vice Principle Nero will expell them if they do not get an A on the next exam (except for Sunny because she's a baby but she'll get expelled if her sister and brother fail) and send them to be homeschooled by the gym teacher! Suddenly the Bauledaires relize Count Olaf's plan: for them to fail school and fall into his cluthes. To avoid this the Bauledaires have the Quagmire twins dress up like them and pull a bag of flour so it looks like Sunny's with them. Then when the Quagmire twins are running they can study for the exam. As morning comes they are awoken by Nero and they begin their exams. To Neros suprise they ace the exam, but the gym teacher comes just in time for the Bauledaires to reveal he is Count Olaf. Also Mr.Poe (a guy who manages where they live) comes along to recongnize that the gym teacher is Count Olaf. Soon Count Olaf sprints away and the Bauledaires chase after him. But when they get to his car they realize that the Quagmire twins are being held hostage by one of Olafs assistants. While they are in shock, Count Olaf runs away with the twins. That's where the book ends.
              I thought this was the best book in the series so far. One reason is, is that the plot is different from all the other books in the series. Usually the Bauledaires are with a gaurdian that has one trait which makes them get caught by Count Olaf. But in this book, they go to a boardin g school and are dealing with the harsh punishments there, and then Count
Olaf steps in to ruin their lives. Also the characters where a huge part in why I liked the book. In all the other books, only one character was on their side and couldn't do much about the situation they were in. But in this book the Quagmire twins were always by their side and helping out the Bauledaires. Also when the Bauledaires were running the would watch them to make sure that Count Olaf didn't harm them. But like in the other books there are more characters against them than with them. There is Vice Principle Nero who always diagreesn with them and sides with Count Olaf because he thinks they have a lot in common. Also the cafateria workers are really Count Olafs assistances who help him know what's going on. And worst of Carmelita Spats. Just by reading her name I could tell she was a bad person. And in the first sentence of the book it says if you were going to give gold medal to the least delightful person on Earth, you would give it to Carmelita Spats. She also teased the Bauledaires constantly and was a very bad character. Another thing about the book was that it was really detailed. It wasn't too detailed so that it would take a page to describe something or someone, but it painted a clear image in your mind. There were also pictures every time there was a new chapter, so if you had a hard time making something out you could see what it was. Overall these things about the book made it extremely good.
               The theme of this book was teamwork. I thought of this instantly because the Quagmires and the Bauledaires constantly relied on eachother. When the Bauledaires were running laps the Quagmires would watch out for them. And when the one of them got punished and wasn't allowed to use siverware for their meal they took turns using eachothers. Plus the Quagmires offered to pretend to be them and risked their own lives just to make sure the Bauledaires would study. And the Quagmires relied on the Bauledaire to be their friends because they had none before. Together they worked on projects to improve the Bauledaires home (which was a tin shack full of crabs, dripping fungi, and barrels of hay as beds). When these two groups worked together it made me like the story more because it seemed liked something good finally happened to the Bauledaires.  
                 My favorite character was Violet Bauledaire. It was not easy picking a character because none of them stood out and made you like them better. But I liked Violet the best because she never gave up no matter the situation. Also throughout the series so far she has made an invention to helpmake the situation better. She's also very smart and can be trusted no matter what. During the book Violet was doing something that Klaus wouldn't expect but he followed along because he knew he could trust her. I bet in the next book Violet will make the situation better by doing whatever she can do.
                   My least favorite character was Vice Principle Nero. Now this character was not hard to pick out despite all the other bad characters in the book. The second the Bauledaires enter the school, Nero already acts like a jerk. First he mimicks everything the Bauledaires say and is very stubborn, so it's hard to convince him about anything. Also he makes up these rediculous rules like if your in the administative office you can't eat with silverware, or if you miss one of his violen concerts you buy him a bag of candy and watch him eat it. That leads my to my next reason. First of all Nero is an awful violen player, and second he makes the children listen to a 6 hour concert by him everyday! So they have to hear him playing horrendous music all the time. In addition to his stupid rules he makes Sunny his secretary and leaves all his work to her. And she can't eat with silverware because she's always in the administrative office. Plus Nero is friends with Count Olaf (but Nero doesn't know that Count Olaf is in disguise). To top it all off he expells the Baledaires at the end of the story even though they passed his exam.
                     The ending of the book was very suprising for me. When the Quagmires dressed up as the Bauledaires I thought they would be caught by Count Olaf and he would kill the Quagmires in the dark like he has to all of his victims. But I never thought he would capture them. I think the ending of this book will create a few more books about the Bauledaires trying to catch Count Olaf and be reunited with their friends. I also want to know how much more disguises and plans Count Olaf can come up with because they are really creative.