Tag: carson ellis

Lemony Snicket roundup

lemonysnicket

 

I realize I’ve read a lot of Lemony Snicket in the last few months, without really meaning to. I must confess that I was not a fan of A Series of Unfortunate Events (although I loved the movie), so I didn’t feel compelled to read more than the first few books.

This Lemony Snicket phase started when his collaboration with illustrator Maira Kalman caught my eye: Why We Broke Up (not as Lemony Snicket but as Daniel Handler) and the picture book 13 Words. Then I remembered I also had a copy of the picture book, The Composer Is Dead, illustrated by one of my new favorites, Carson Ellis. And then I saw Lemony Snicket’s latest book at the bookstore and figured I might as well review these books all together, so I also got a copy of Who Could That Be At This Hour?

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma

A couple of months ago, I blogged about how much I enjoyed the first two books of The Mysterious Benedict Society, and I recently got to read the third book in the series, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

If you’re not familiar with the “prisoner’s dilemma,” it’s a problem involving two prisoners who are physically separated and offered a deal by their captor to betray their fellow prisoner and get off scot-free. The book opens with Sticky and Kate in one room and Constance and Reynie in another, in a “prisoner’s dilemma” type of test supervised by Rhonda Kazembe, one of Mr. Benedict’s assistants. They had three options:

(A) If both teams remain silent, all of them receive extra kitchen duty for one day.

(B) If both teams betray each other, all of them would receive extra kitchen duty for one week.

(C) If one team chose silence and one team chose betrayal, the traitors would get of free while the other team would be kitchen slaves for a whole week!

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The Mysterious Benedict Society


I’ve been really curious about the Mysterious Benedict Society series ever since I saw the first book on the bookstore shelf. I lucked out on a copy of the first volume last year, and then got the second volume as a Christmas present from an officemate, and at the start of the year, I figured it was about time I read the books.

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