New Lemony Snicket 'All The Wrong Questions' Book Series Begins This Fall

NEW YORK -- Against the apparent wishes of the author, a new Lemony Snicket series begins this fall.

Little Brown Books for Young Readers announced Wednesday that "Who Could That Be At This Hour?" will be out in October. It's the first of four volumes of the "All the Wrong Questions" series, a "highly autobiographical account" of Snicket's childhood.

In keeping with a running gag that Snicket – the pen name for series author Daniel Handler – discourages people from reading his books, Little Brown also shared with reporters an email purporting to be from him. The "Snicketemail" asks Little Brown to postpone its announcement.

Although Little Brown plans to print 1 million copies, "Snicket" wonders in the email "why anyone would be interested" in the new series.

Comments

[tulsey]

05:07 PM on 02/12/2012

Good news. Children should about the cruelty and ambiguity of life as soon as possible.

[Twrexx]

01:20 PM on 02/12/2012

I can't wait. I loved Harry Potter, don't get me wrong, but Lemony Snicket's books were just better written and more original in terms of style. The movie was awful because they crammed three books into one movie, but the books are definitely worth reading. I don't think there's been a funnier villain than Count Olaf.

[FinalHorcrux]

05:06 PM on 02/09/2012

Whoohoo!! I'm so buying this. I love Lemony Snicket.

[AnaM]

12:39 AM on 02/09/2012

Ah well...and there I was thinking it was over. Now my son is going to go out and buy this as well....

[flyinghigh0905]

04:11 PM on 02/08/2012

Is this just his ploy to get people to actually buy this stuff? This guy is so confusing. You can't write 13 freeking books and act like you don't like the fame and money.

[threnodymarch]

04:32 PM on 02/08/2012

It's sort of a leitmotif in his work for kids. The stories he tells are full of bad things happening to people (done in a mostly comical way) and therefore he playfully/ironically discourages people from reading the books because they are "too miserable." I personally think it's a clever way to market and write books. I'm not sure how else to explain it - maybe it's one of those things you get or you don't. It might help if you actually saw one of the books. Flipping through it and reading the synopsis would probably make it more clear than I can. It's not so much a ploy as it is a style of writing. I hope that makes sense!

[flyinghigh0905]

05:29 PM on 02/08/2012

I actually did read several of his Series of Unfortunate Events books.. until of course they got so depressing I couldn't finish them. But I just wondered it was indeed a marketing ploy or if he's just weird. Maybe both?

[Twrexx]

01:26 PM on 02/12/2012

I laughed so hard in the store when I picked up a book--I think it was the unauthorized biography but I can't remember--and it had a cover that you could turn inside out to disguise the book as a happy one. The happy version looked like one of the Series of Unfortunate Events covers but was called "The Pony Party." Even the "author's" name was scrambled. The accompanying text on the flap was hilarious. This guy is just brilliant.

[Twrexx]

01:17 PM on 02/12/2012

It's a joke. The first series is very macabre in a humorous way, and so he warns people off reading them on the panel of every book. You should try reading them. They are brilliant.