The seventh book in Lemony Snicket's splendidly gloomy Series of Unfortunate Events shadows the three Baudelaire orphans as they plummet headlong into their next misadventure. Mr. Poe, their ineffective legal guardian, having exhausted all options for finding them a new home with relatives (including their 19th cousin), sadly entrusts his young charges' fate to a progressive guardian program formed with the premise "It takes a village to raise a child." Before they know it, the Baudelaires are being whisked off on a bus to a village (vile) named "V.F.D." Snicket fans who read The Austere Academy and The Ersatz Elevator will jump to see these three initials, as they provide a clue to the tragic disappearance of the Baudelaires' friends, the beloved, equally orphaned Quagmire triplets.

To the orphans' dismay, V.F.D. is covered in crows--so much so that the whole village is pitch-black and trembling. "The crows weren't squawking or cawing, which is what crows often do, or playing the trumpet, which crows practically never do, but the town was far from silent. The air was filled with the sounds the crows made as they moved around." Another disturbing element of the town is that the Council of Elders (who wear creepy crow hats) has thousands of rules, such as "don't hurt crows" and "don't build mechanical devices." Fortunately, the Baudelaires are taken in by a kindly handyman named Hector who cooks them delicious Mexican food and secretly breaks rules. Still, neither Hector nor an entire village can protect the orphans from the clutches of the money-grubbing Count Olaf, who has relentlessly pursued them (actually, just their fortune) since The Bad Beginning. Fans won't want to miss any of this marvelously morbid series! (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

From School Library Journal
Grade 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 Esm? 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 clich?s 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
In this seventh installment of the Series of Unfortunate Events, the orphaned Baudelaire children find themselves shuttled into another hostile en-vironment, still plagued by the greedy yet incompetent Count Olaf. Tim Curry gives distinct character vocalizations without compromising the rich undertones of his voice. He keeps the tongue-in-cheek humor and mockery of this children's series refreshing rather than redundant. Curry reads the backstory from previous books clearly, so a listener unfamiliar with the earlier novels may understand this one. The morose guitar music and lyrics played by the Gothic Archies during tape transition add a finishing touch to a wholly enjoyable listening experience. J.M.P. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Reviewed with Lemony Snicket's The Ersatz Elevator. 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

Book Description
Dear Reader,You have undoubtedly picked up this book by mistake, so please put it down. Nobody in their right mind would read this particular book about the lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire on purpose, because each dismal moment of their stay in the village of V.F.D. has been faithfully and dreadfully recorded in these pages.I can think of no single reason why anyone would want to open a book containing such unpleasant matters as migrating crows, an angry mob, a newspaper headline, the arrest of innocent people, the Deluxe Cell, and some very strange hats.It is my solemn and sacred occupation to research each detail of the Baudelaire children's lives and write them all down, but you may prefer to do some other solemn and sacred thing, such as reading another book instead.With all due respect,Lemony Snicket

Card catalog description
Under a new government program based on the saying "It takes a village to raise a child," the Baudelaire orphans are adopted by an entire town, with disastrous results.

About the Author
Lemony Snicket grew up near the sea and currently lives beneath it. To his horror and dismay, he has no wife or children, only enemies, associates, and the occasional loyal manservant. His trial has been delayed, so he is free to continue researching and recording the tragic tales of the Baudelaire orphans for HarperCollins.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Misery loves company. If you doubt the truth behind this aphorism, just delve into Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which follows the hair-raising adventures of the unlucky Baudelaire orphans. In the seventh book in this series, The Vile Village, the beleaguered Baudelaires are branded as murderers, as they strive to survive and rescue their kidnapped friends, the two surviving Quagmire triplets.

After crossing miles of flat, desolate land, the Baudelaires end up in a village that is led by a tribal council of elders and governed by thousands of crows, who fly back and forth from one end of the town to the other. Forced to perform all the village chores, the children soon come across evidence that their friends, the Quagmires, are being hidden somewhere in town. Violet's inventing skills and Klaus's recall of all he has read will be put to their greatest tests yet, as they solve the puzzles hidden in a series of mysterious communications from the Quagmires. And little Sunny, whose vocabulary is growing along with the sharpness of her teeth, plays a more pivotal role than ever before.

The village becomes even more ominous when the children learn of its bazillion rules -- the breaking of any of which is punished by being burned at the stake. When a man believed to be Olaf is found murdered, the Baudelaire children are fingered for the crime and imprisoned. When Count Olaf appears in yet another of his adult-fooling disguises and informs the children that he has come to realize he only needs one of them alive to carry out his plans for stealing their family fortune, the future looks grim indeed. The children must use their wits and God-given talents to escape, and given what we know about their abominable luck, it's a given that getting out of one scrape merely means getting into another. Lucky for us that the Baudelaires are so unlucky. (Beth Amos)

ANNOTATION

Under a new government program based on the saying "It takes a village to raise a child," the Baudelaire orphans are adopted by an entire town, with disastrous results.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Sadly, Lemony Snicket continues to research the increasingly distressing plight of the unfortunate Baudelaire orphans, and offers up another awful episode of their terrible lives. In this seventh book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the unlucky siblings are residents of an unnerving village, where they encounter a flock of crows, a strict council, a prison break, a censored library, a harpoon gun, and a hot-air balloon.

The wretched adventures of the charming Baudelaires are exquisitely dark comedies, both literary and irreverent, hilarious and deftly crafted. The multi-talented Lemony Snicket spins another uproariously unhappy tale about three captivating and resilient orphans facing yet another bout of outrageous misfortune.

SYNOPSIS

I can think of no single reason why anyone would want to open a book containing such unpleasant matters as migrating crows, an angry mob, a newspaper headline, the arrest of innocent people, the Deluxe Cell, and some very strange hats.

It is my solemn and sacred occupation to research each detail of the Baudelaire children's lives and write them all down, but you may prefer to do some other solemn and sacred thing, such as reading another book instead.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Heather Robertson

If you have not become acquainted with the Baudelaire children, now is the time to change that. Violet, Klause and Sunny are orphans who lost their parents in a horrible fire and have since been shuffled from one eccentric relative to another, each time having to leave when the evil Count Olaf finds them and tries to kill them. In the seventh book in the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" series, the children have finally run out of relatives and are sent to the village of V.F.D. to be raised by the entire village ("it takes a village to raise a child"). However, the townspeople believe that a child should be seen and not heard and should be at work and not at play so the children are put to work immediately. It turns out that V.F.D. means Village of Fowl Devotees and crows are EVERYWHERE. To make things worse, they are still not safe from Count Olaf, who has hatched another evil plan to get the money left to them by their parents. Don't let the tragic summary fool you. This book is actually a humorous and highly entertaining novel. The orphans are extremely intelligent and escape from the various traps in ingenious ways. The author tells the story slowly and with many ventures off the topic but this only heightens the humor (and often gives a good vocabulary lesson.) This book, like the other books in the series, is highly recommended. 2001, Harper Collins,

VOYA

A Series of Unfortunate Events chronicles the perilous adventures of the Baudelaire children, thirteen-year-old Violet, twelve-year-old Klaus, and toddler Sunny. They were orphaned when their wealthy parents died in a tragic accident. Their parents' bank places them with a series of totally unsuitable guardians, from whom they must always make their escape. The evil Count Olaf lusts after their inheritance and continually tries to capture them. In every book in the series, he appears in a disguise that no adult can penetrate, yet the children always know it is he. In The Vile Village, Mr. Poe sends the Baudelaires to a village called V. F. D. The children know those initials have a dire significance for their friends, and they go willingly enough, only to find themselves in more trouble. The village council assigns them to work with the handyman, Hector, to do all the chores in the village. He is a kind man, but the village rules are impossible to follow. Then the Baudelaires discover mysterious messages from Isadora, and the village captures someone the new female police chief announces is Count Olaf—but who actually is an unfortunate fellow named Jacques. When Jacques is found dead the next morning, Detective Dupin arrives, but he is really Olaf. Naturally none of the adults except perhaps Hector believe the children, and they end up being murder suspects. Books in this series are reminiscent of Victorian melodrama. They are full of anachronisms, and the people and events are completely outlandish—readers must suspend disbelief and go along for the ride. Younger teens with a lively sense of the ridiculous will appreciate the preposterous plots and predicaments, and older teensmight enjoy the wordplay as evidenced in some of the characters' names. For others, a small dose of Snicket will go a long way. Reading the books in order—beginning with The Bad Beginning (HarperTrophy, 1999), The Reptile Room (1999), The Wide Window (2000), The Miserable Mill (2000), and The Austere Academy (2000)—is preferred, but one will not feel lost by starting with any. Libraries already owning the series in their children's departments will not need an additional set, except perhaps for larger facilities. Middle schools with generous budgets also might want to acquire the books. VOYA CODES:3Q 2P M J (Readable without serious defects;For the YA with a special interest in the subject;Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8;Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2001, HarperCollins, 272p. PLB $9.95. Ages 11 to 15. Reviewer:Kat Kan—VOYA, December 2001 (Vol. 24, No. 5)

School Library Journal

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 Esm 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 clich s 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.

AudioFile