Sinister tadpoles, strangely valuable statues, arson, and much more. This is All the Wrong Question. For this post, we address the third question: “Shouldn’t You Be in School?” Things are getting more exciting. Arson is kind of a theme in this one. Everybody loves to play with fire.

Warning: Spoilers May Follow

Hangfire has been working more evil throughout the town, and Lemony Snicket intends to put an end to it. Of course, that tends to be the basic plot of a lot of stories, but that’s beside the point.

Lemony Snicket and his naïve mentor, S. Theodora Markson (no one knows what the “S” stands for), are presented with a new case: Arson. Multiple buildings around town are being caught on fire and burned down. To learn more about the matter, they come to the Department of Education; a very suspicious seeming organization that Ms. Markson, of course, trusts immediately. Lemony Snicket meets a boy there named Kellar Haines who seems to know far more than he’s letting on.

The Department of Education claims the school children are in trouble because these buildings are being burned down, but there seems to be no clear connection. However, all the school children are being moved to a private boarding school for rich families in Stain’d by the Sea. Now all the children of the town are being moved to one locality just outside of town. This is certainly suspicious.

Dashiell Qwerty, the librarian in Stain’d by the Sea has been unjustly accused of starting the fires in town, and he’s arrested as an arsonist.

Now Lemony Snicket’s friends are all being snatched up and taken to the school. They have all devised a plan to investigate the happenings within the school. Meanwhile, things are getting more sinister and more dangerous all the time. That’s the penultimate book for you. I’ll leave the rest for you.

All the Wrong Questions is geared for middle-school-age kids, but that doesn’t mean you’re too old to read it. The series does not come with a happy ending. You’ll have to provide that yourself. Do not read this book before the other two. I know of people who will do something like that, and I think that’s one of the most foolish things to do. You don’t skip books. You know who you are. You can find my review for the first to books here and here.

Like this post and follow my blog as well as on social media (links in the sidebar). The final book review comes next Wednesday.

Ever onward,

Jacob Unger.