Harry Potter Film Wizardry

2010, HarperCollins first edition
Harry Potter Film Wizardry: From the Creative Team Behind the Celebrated Movie Series
Written (mostly) by Brian Sibley
Designed by Minalima Design
Bought new for $39.99
Hardcover in good condition
B+

Like the pop-up books, this is a lot of eye candy, even more so of course, since it runs to 160 pages.  There are no pop-ups, but there are lots of "paper ephemera," such as Harry's Hogwarts letter, booklets like Advanced Potion-Making, Honeydukes packages, and best of all, the Marauder's Map!  The book is arranged roughly in chronological order, although there will be focus on a person, place, or thing if particularly prominent in one film.  Understandably, given the timing of the release, there are only fourteen pages on DH1, and only two on DH2.  Still, it's a great way to relive the movie series.  If I have any quibble, it's that the writing by Sibley could've been stronger, but it doesn't get in the way too much, and I especially liked the pages by production designer Stuart Craig and producer David Heyman.  I also like that, while it's mostly about the film series, the book series is discussed where pertinent. 

Highly recommended for moderate to obsessive fans.  Appropriate for, say, ten years old and up, although Helena Bonham Carter does get a bit naughty at times.

Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book Based on the Film Phenomenon

2010, Insight first edition
Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book Based on the Film Phenomenon
Paper Engineering by Bruce Foster
Art by Andrew Williamson
Text by Lucy Kee
Bought new for $34.95
Hardcover in good condition
B

Although there's more to this than to 2008's Magical Scenes from the Sixth Film in the Harry Potter Series, it does promise more, so I can't give it a higher rating.

• Dumbledore's Office, this time with a packet from the Ministry and for some reason a Howler.
• Diagon Alley, with pop-up buildings and smaller pop-ups of Hedwig and the Weasley-twin joke-shop statue.
• Hogwarts pop-up, with a smaller pop-up of both the Beauxbatons carriage and the Durmstrang ship.
• Magical Creatures, including the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid's Hut, and smaller pop-ups of Fluffy and a Mandrake.
• "Magical Games and Sports," with Harry and the dragon in the First Task, smaller pop-ups showing the giant chess game and Ron as Quidditch Keeper.
• The Dark Arts, showing Voldemort torturing Harry in GoF, and this time three smaller pop-ups: Nagini, the Inferi, and Dementors.

There's more text than in Magical Scenes, although understandably still not very much.  I think rather than themes, I'd prefer a scene from each film to that point.  (Deathly Hallows, Part I was released that November, but they could've gone up to HBP.)  Or maybe they could've focused on a character, or group of characters, each spread.  The pop-ups are more detailed than before, including backs, but they seem to tilt more than necessary.  The book is probably less spoilery than Magical Scenes, although anyone willing to spend 35 bucks probably had seen all the released movies more than once by then.

Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware

2009, 2010 Beach Lane edition
M. T. Anderson
Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
A Pals in Peril Tale: Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware
Bought newish for $6.99
Slightly worn paperback
B-

While the idea of treating the state of Delaware as an exotic, forbidding land is amusing, I found this to be the least funny of the series so far.  (The letter from the real Governor of Delaware, reprinted in the back, is as witty as Anderson at his best here.)  However, the Cyrus illustrations are his best yet, especially the two-page spreads of the wondrous sights of Dover.  Of the writing, I most enjoyed the logic puzzle, which Anderson has the characters solve, deconstruct, and then reconstruct.  There's an excerpt from the next book, Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger!, but I'm not interested enough in the series (now, as you'll notice, renamed from M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales) to continue anytime soon.

HPHBP: Magical Scenes from the Sixth Film in the Harry Potter Series

2008, Penguin first edition
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Magical Scenes from the Sixth Film in the Harry Potter Series
Copyright by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
Original price £9.99, bought newish for $7.95
Hardcover in good condition
B

Ironically, I find this more entertaining than the book or the movie, for what it is.  Not that it isn't odd to see a book with "pull-tabs, pop-ups and flaps" that involves romance and violence, but such is the oddness of a fandom that spans many ages and interests.  Each two-page spread has a different theme, not necessarily in order.  In fact, there are even spoilers for Deathly Hallows!  

• Hogwarts Express, with a ticket and four house badges
• Quidditch theme, with a flying Ron and a small poster
• "Severus Snape (TM) is the Half-Blood Prince (TM)."  You didn't know he trademarked it, did you?
• Quibbler salute, with awesome Spectrespecs
• Love and Friendship, with Harry/Ginny pop-up, although he's not even looking at her.  (Couldn't they have done the kiss, or at least hand-holding?)
• Death Eaters theme, with a big flap that reveals some of the D.E.s.
• Tom Riddle, with one flap revealing 1930s Dumbledore and another Voldemort's face hidden behind young Tom's.  Eek!
• Horcruxes, with a dial to see what they are, very spoilery.
• Room of Requirement, with pull-tab to see explanation, and a tab hiding Bellatrix in the Vanishing Cabinet.  Eek!
• Dumbledore, with pop-up Fawkes and a portrait flap I can't pull loose.

The design of the book is generally impressive, although it could've been better.

Book the Thirteenth: The End

2006, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Thirteenth: The End
Bought new for $12.99
Hardcover in good condition
B-

And so it ends.  Not with alliteration, not with all the mysteries solved, not with a bang.  The once over-the-top satiric series has morphed into a philosophical question, so that among the references to Erewhon, Caliban, and the like, it seems like there should be a mention of Utopia.  In the mid-aughts, my book collection is full of war, invasion, fear, paranoia, betrayal, and abandonment.  Yet here the Baudelaires ponder whether it's better to be protected or to be informed.  Not coincidentally, a benign snake offers them bitter apples that save their lives.

I miss what the series was, but all things considered, and with over seven years' hindsight, I'm OK with this ending.

The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen

2006, first edition, from Harcourt, Inc.
M. T. Anderson
Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales: The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen
Bought new for $15.00
Hardcover in good condition
B-

Although there are some nice touches here, from the title to the gathering of children's book series heroes and heroines at a hotel (no, not the Denouement), to the bittersweet realization that Katie is stuck in 1998, and Jasper much further back, I don't think this is as strong as Whales.  For one thing, I could've done without the long descriptions of Jasper suffocating in his own snot.  For another, the Manley Boys just aren't as funny as Maney's Hardly Boys.  Even Cyrus's illustrations aren't quite as good as last time, although I think the geometric "pool-floating" one is great. As I recall, my reservations are why I got the third book, 2009's Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware, from the library rather than buying it.  But I also recall that I liked it more than this entry, so I've put it on order and will let you know what I think this time around.

The Penultimate Peril

2005, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Twelfth: The Penultimate Peril
Original price $11.99, purchase price $4.80
Hardcover in good condition
B-

Well, at least Olaf drops his annoying laugh.  Here in the, yes, next to last book, there are still many loose ends, and I'm not really sure what the point is in having so many of the earlier characters show up in The Hotel Denouement, but hey, at least Snicket continues to expand kids' vocabularies.  I didn't notice any sexual humor this time, but he does make it clear that the Squalors are still married, and that Kit Snicket (Lemony's sister) is pregnant and probably unmarried.  He also continues the questioning of good and evil, with the Baudelaires accidentally killing someone!  For a satiric series aimed at preteens, this is pretty heavy stuff.

Whales on Stilts!

2005, first edition, from Harcourt, Inc.
M. T. Anderson
Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales: Whales on Stilts!
Bought new for $15.00
Hardcover in good condition
B

Sort of a kinder, gentler Lemony Snicket, Anderson's writing here doesn't merit more than a B-, but I really enjoyed Cyrus's woodcut illustrations, usually diagramming ridiculous inventions, or adding to the fun of Anderson's ads for the book series starring the protagonist's best friends.  In a reversal of the more common two-boys-one-girl-best-friendship (as in Harry Potter of course, but also as in, for instance, The Beloved Dearly by Cooney), "ordinary" Lily Gefelty (a pun on "gefilte"?) has a male friend, Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut; and a female friend, Katie Mulligan, who has Goosebumps-like adventures.

Anderson calls attention to various cliches, as when the villain (yes, a whale) monologues, and his minions MST3K him.  The book isn't hilarious, but it's certainly likable, and it is nice to see, you know, a happy ending after all the Snicketing.  The next thrilling tale, The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen, is coming up in '06!

The Grim Grotto

2004, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Eleventh: The Grim Grotto
Original price $11.99, purchase price $4.80
Worn hardcover
C+

This entry introduces a perhaps temporary love interest for Klaus (Fiona, who in her triangular glasses looks suspiciously like Petra in the Helquist-illustrated Chasing Vermeer [2005] by Blue Balliett).  Also, it has a discussion that I suspect is a parody of Sirius Black saying the world isn't divided into good people and Death Eaters, in this case comparing them to mixed salads.  And it has Sunny saying "procto" to mean "the other end."  But it also has three running jokes that, while perhaps meant to be annoying, are nonetheless annoying: Olaf's new evil laugh, Fiona's stepfather's overuse of the word "Aye," and the narrator's long-winded discussion of the water cycle.  So we've got the weakest book in the series so far, with two more books for Snicket to bounce back in. 

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

2003, first edition, from Hyperion
Mo Willems
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Bought newish for $12.99
Good condition hardcover
B-

The first picture book on here in over a dozen years, since Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990), shows a children's author at the beginning, rather than the end, of his career.  Willems has written many more books since, including a few more about the Pigeon.  This title character is like a spoiled, manipulative, yet likable child.  He addresses the reader directly, and we're meant to discourage him from driving the bus, even when he throws a tantrum.  Still, he's unsinkable, and in the endpapers he dreams of driving a truck.

Willems has a simple, retro art style, here sort of like 1950s animated commercials.  I wouldn't say this is the best of his output-- the Knufflebunny books and Elephant and Piggie beginning reader series are arguably better-- but it's a fine debut.

I could say that we've got only a decade left for this project, but actually at this point my most recent books are from 2011, so unless I get, say, the latest Bridget Jones (and I'm waiting for that to come out in paperback), we're only eight years from the end.

The Slippery Slope

2003, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Tenth: The Slippery Slope
Bought new for $10.99
Hardcover in good condition
B

Despite the title and the overall slow decline of the series, I found this to be the best entry in awhile.  It helps that we meet the third Quagmire Triplet, Quigley.  He befriends the elder Baudelaires and seems to be a love interest for Violet.  (Like Rowling with Harry's first kiss, Snicket gives Violet some alone-time with Quigley, although he's much more ostentatious about it, a word that here means calling attention to his discretion.)  I also enjoyed the several-times-repeated alphabetical list of Snow Scout pledges, with "xylophone" the "adjective" for X.  And I actually laughed out loud, partly in surprise, at "'Busheney,' Sunny said, which meant something along the lines of, 'You're an evil man with no concern whatsoever for other people.'"  (Hint, think of who the President and VP were then.)  Most of all, I felt like all the hints were finally adding up to something.

Nonetheless, I didn't own #11 or #12 till yesterday, although I did check them out from the library at the time.

The Carnivorous Carnival

2002, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Ninth: The Carnivorous Carnival
Original price $10.99, purchase price $4.80
Hardcover in good condition
B-

While better than the autobiography, this entry is still not Snicket at the top of his game.  I did like the discussion of whether evil acts, like lying, are evil if they're done by good people for good reasons.  But at this point, I think it was wrong to have the Baudelaires be rootless wanderers.  When they were with guardians who were supposed to take care of them in one place, no matter how much the guardians failed at this, it rooted not just the siblings but the story.  In this one, there's no reason for them to stick around the carnival (more of a circus really), except to eavesdrop.  And, yes, I don't find myself laughing out loud at the humor anymore.  The series is still better than a lot of other children's series, but it's not living up to its initial promise.  Snicket does top himself with his most outrageous sex joke so far: under a discussion of French terms, he has "'la petite mort,' which describes a feeling that part of you has died."  Since he's mainly discussing de ja vu, this allows him to repeat the joke three times!  (At least when Ruth Plumly Thompson did this stuff, there was a chance she didn't realize what she was saying.)

The best illustration this time is definitely Esme's gown with the "I [heart] Freaks" banner.

Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography

2002, undated later edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography
Original price unknown, purchase price $4.00
Paperback in good condition
C+

Although Snicket does a better job with tweaking biographical conventions than Eggers did in A Heartbreaking Work, I found this much less focused than the books in the Series of Unfortunate Events.  There are of course clues to that series here, as well as affectionate jokes about such other juvenile fiction authors as Wilder and Cleary, but I didn't feel like Snicket brought it all together.  Oh, and continuing the sneaky sex humor of his earlier books, there's here a repeat of the joke from I think #6 or #7 about the Church of the Alleged Virgin.  No Helquist illustrations this time, but there are an assortment of odd photos, seemingly from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s.  Since this is the paperback edition, it doesn't have the reversible cover that the hardback apparently came with. 

In the past three months, my reading stats have continued to climb, so thanks, Everybody!  One hundred books ago, I had

1 F
4 F+s
2 D-s
5 D's
13 D+s
23 C-s
47 C's
170 C+s
294 B-s
183 B's
50 B+s
8 A-s

Since then I've had to add a D- and two D+s, although no D's.  There are three new C-s, one new C, and nineteen new C+s.  As usual, close to half the new books were B-s, this time 44.  There are 24 more B's, five more B+s, and even another A-.

The Hostile Hospital

2001, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Eighth: The Hostile Hospital
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Hardcover in good condition
B

Things pick up in this installment, surprisingly thanks to an apparently re-inspired Helquist.  From the smiley-face (not just heart-shaped, as in the text) balloons to the guitar that says, ala Guthrie, "This volunteer fights disease," there are great details.  As for the story, the Baudelaires try to find out more about their parents' deaths (although there may be a survivor of that fire), as they not only elude pursuit for the count's uncommitted murder, but work as file clerks in the hospital of the title.  And following the previous book's anacrostic, we this time get an anagram, suggested by the name "Ana Gram."

I wonder if Snicket realized he was cranking these out too fast and it was hard to maintain a high quality.  (It's still a better series than His Dark Materials of course.)  He slowed down in 2002, so we'll just have Book the Ninth and his "unauthorized autobiography."

The Vile Village

2001, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Seventh: The Vile Village
Original price $11.99, purchase price $4.80
Hardcover in good condition
B-

Snicket again teases the Baudelaires (and the readers) with a brief reunion with the Quagmires, but mostly this story is about the main unlucky siblings having to work for an entire village (in a deliberate misinterpretation of the Hillary-adopted "It takes a village to raise a child" slogan), and then being accused of the murder of Count Omar [sic], when Jacques Snicket is killed.  In this middle of what would eventually be a thirteen-book series (each of which has thirteen chapters), the hints are piling up.  That the village goes by the initials V.F.D. is significant, or is it?  Isadora Quagmire's anacrostic couplet allows for some clue-solving within the book.  The illustrations, with their emphasis on the village's crows, are probably the dullest ever.

The Ersatz Elevator

2001, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Sixth: The Ersatz Elevator
Original price $10.99, purchase price $4.00
Hardcover in good condition
B-

Another slip in quality, although this does introduce Olaf's married girlfriend Esme Squalor.  Yes, adultery in a children's book, but that wasn't really the problem I had with it.  I just felt like here, almost mid-series, things aren't that fresh or funny anymore.  With the first two books, I was constantly caught off guard by Snicket's turns of phrase.  Also, the two (yes, two) Quagmire triplets show up (after their introduction in the previous book) only to drop hints and then get re-kidnapped.  Still, there's enough cleverness and wordplay (Esme's name is a Salinger reference), as well as absurdity, including Sunny climbing down an elevator using her teeth, to keep things interesting.  No real memorable illustrations this time, although I like the design of the "In Boutique" bags.

ETA: Having since acquired and reread The Austere Academy, the fifth book, I have to say that the real slip began there, as it would also have earned a B-.

The Miserable Mill

2000, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Fourth: The Miserable Mill
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Hardcover in good condition
B

Although this is still a solid entry in the series, there is a drop in quality.  It's partly that I didn't think the setting was as interesting, and partly that I didn't like the thread of Klaus being hypnotized to cause accidents.  Also, Olaf doesn't show up until pretty far into the book, and I have mixed feelings about him disguising himself as a woman.  Not to be overly p.c., but I was already bothered by the character who's not clearly a man or a woman.  I'm not saying Snicket is homophobic, or transphobic, but there is a tradition (even in children's literature) of androgyny being evil.  (Like albinos being evil.)  It doesn't bother me a lot, no more than I'm bothered by the fatness of Vernon and Dudley Dursley, but I am conscious of it.

As for Helquist, he of course really plays up the "eye" theme, which is stronger than ever here.  I kept wondering if there were Great Gatsby connections.  It is significant that the optometrist is named Georgina Orwell, which connects to the "watching" motif.

I'm missing The Austere Academy, so we'll jump ahead to #6, The Ersatz Elevator in 2001.

The Wide Window

2000, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Third: The Wide Window
Hardcover in good condition
B+

This time the children stay with paranoid and grammar-obsessed "Aunt" Josephine in a cliff-top house (yes, with a wide window) on the edge of Lake Lachrymose, one of my favorite settings in the series.  As the children realize, Josephine isn't a very good guardian, although she's of course better than Count Olaf.  The best thing in the book is probably the "suicide note" that's actually a clue.  Helquist's best illustration is probably of the children sitting on Damocles Dock, with a sword hanging over Violet.

When the movie came out, the first three books were mashed together in a way that didn't quite work.  I didn't care for Jim Carrey as Count Olaf but otherwise the casting was good, and I did like the look of the film.

The Reptile Room

1999, possibly first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Second: The Reptile Room
Hardcover in good condition
B+

This is just as clever as the first book, with lines like "Never, under any circumstances, let the Virginia Wolfsnake near a typewriter."  And when Mr. Poe (the children's dim-witted "protector") panics, he calls out to not only several deities, but Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Snicket even gets away with filling over a page with just the word "ever" repeated again and again.  Helquist's illustrations aren't quite as memorable, although the snake topiary is good.  

The first book set up the situation, with the children becoming orphans and meeting Count Olaf.  In this first sequel, they have a much kinder distant relative to stay with, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, but Snicket observes that their happiness won't last long, and indeed it doesn't.  

The Bad Beginning

1999, possibly first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the First: The Bad Beginning
Box set of three books bought used for $14.40
Hardcover in good condition
B+

Nice as it is to revisit the Harry Potter series, I have to admit that this series starts off with a bigger bang.  Both the pseudonymous Snicket and his soon-to-be regular illustrator Helquist have a sly wit like nothing else in children's literature.  My earlier copy of this first book was something I picked up to read in a bookstore while waiting for my then-boyfriend.  He was so late that I made him buy the book for me (for $4.50), since I'd already fallen in love with what I'd read so far.  Snicket offers a mix of modernity and Victoriana, lace and fax machines, that's not steampunk but was as just as fresh yet classic when I first encountered it at the end of the '90s.  (And I wasn't yet a Harry Potter reader, so there were no comparisons for a long time.)  I do think the series declined later, so I was surprised at how well the first book has aged, still making me laugh out loud.  The funniest and cleverest illustration is easily the "eye" one for Chapter Eleven, including Daliesque "melting" eyes instead of watches.

Fourteen years ago, I thought the series would be too satirical for kids, but actually the children I've talked to who've read it (several dozen over the years) really enjoy it, even if they don't get every joke.  Heck, neither did I at first.  (Like the Von Bulow reference in Klaus [sic] and Sunny's names.)  I also like that Snicket goes somewhat against gender stereotypes, by making oldest sibling Violet an inventor.  (Another positive female figure in recent children's literature that Susan J. Douglas would overlook, without Hermione Granger's excuse of being British.)

As the series went on, and I was checking out books from the library more, I owned less than half of this series (six books out of thirteen).  My copy of #2 was very, very worn (bought used) and I didn't have #3, but I had such fun with #1 this time, that I got the box set.  I prefer to buy books used rather than new, so I don't know if I'll complete the set but I'll see if I can fill in some of the other gaps as we go along.