When Did You See Her Last?

Love the style of this author. I have been reading his books aloud with my 10-year old son, and even though the story line is fairly simple, Lemony Snicket's style makes it a fun read. Plus, reading his books always boosts our vocabulary!

There are six things you need to know about this book. I will list them in order, so you will not be (too) confused, and so S. Theodora Markson will approve: 1. When Did You See Her Last? is the second book of Lemony Snicket's All the Wrong Questions series, a hard-boiled detective style story populated with strange people, unsettling settings, and more wrong questions than you can shake a stick at. (Why would you want to shake a stick at anything? What good would it do? Well...let's not think too hard about that.) 2. This book picks up where the first book, Who Could That Be at This Hour?, left off, so if you don't want to read any spoilers ("spoiler" is a word which here means, "stop reading this right now!"), read the first book first. Also, starting at the beginning of the series instead of the middle will save you from being more perplexed and mystified than necessary. 3. Even if you have read the first book, you will still be perplexed and mystified by the perplexing new mystery introduced in this second book: Cleo Knight, the daughter of the Ink Inc. owners who once made Stain'd-by-the-Sea a thriving center of ink commerce, has allegedly run away and joined the circus. It is up to young Lemony Snicket and his not-so-competent chaperone, S. Theodora Markson, to find Miss Knight. 4. As implied by the title of this book, Snicket attempts to locate Miss Knight's whereabouts by asking the obvious question. However, he soon realizes that, once again, he is asking all the wrong questions. The true mystery is not, "When did you see her last?" or "Why did she run away?" but "Why aren't her parents more upset about her disappearance?" and "How can she be seen in more than one place at the same time?" 5. While trying to solve the new case of the missing Cleo Knight, Snicket is still working on the case introduced in the previous book, that of the disappearing, reappearing Bombinating Beast statue. Why is a wooden, milk bottle-sized statue in the shape of an ugly creature resembling the offspring of a shark and a seahorse considered so valuable by the evasive villain named Hangfire? Why is the enigmatic Ellington Feint, a girl who captured Snicket's fancy in the first book, so anxious to get her hands on it, too? 6. Fortunately, in spite of his deadweight chaperone, Snicket gets investigative help from more competent friends, including aspiring journalist Moxie Mallahan, taxi-driving brothers Pip and Squeak, and Hungry's nephew (yes, you read that last one correctly). Unfortunately, When Did You See Her Last? introduces many more questions than it answers, which means you will develop an uncomfortable itch that can only be scratched when you get to read the as-yet-unreleased third installment of this series.

I truly admire the fact that Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler seems willing to soldier on with his own style, at his own speed, for his own purposes without regard to the conventions of children's lit or the lack of precedent for his approach. That said, it seems to me that sometimes his books, especially the later "Series of Unfortunate Events" books, can be repetitive or just empty and clever for the sake of cleverness. In this series, (this is the second book in the series, although care is taken to make it practical to read this one without necessarily being familiar with the first one), Snicket has more to work with and has a grander design. The result is accordingly deeper, wiser, more inventive and more rewarding. What you end up reading is a sort of kid noir magical realism. You have a deadpan, world weary, gimlet eyed 13 year old narrator with a dark sense of humor and a seen-it-all vibe. But, this isn't your typical middle or high school noir in which each school kid plays a younger version of an established noir type, (cheerleader as femme fatale, jock as a goon, isolated nerdy guy as criminal mastermind, and so on). Rather, Snicket sets his deadpan just-the-facts-ma'am hero in an odd, illogical and twisted world filled with fantastical features. The effect is a surreal yet restrained tale in which the prosaic and exceptional swirl around to create an unstable world. Sometimes this can be upsetting to adult readers, who expect a cute fun story from "Lemony Snicket". But while they are surprised by the unsettled and contrary Snicket world, kids take to it. Maybe it's because kid readers don't have settled expectations or aren't committed to conventional approaches and so respond well to the freedom of a Snicket book. These books remind me a lot of Daniel Pinkwater's playfully mystical books, (say, Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl ), but where Pinkwater is lively and upbeat the Snicket books all have a strong undercurrent of melancholy. Maybe a closer comparison is to Edward Gorey's works, but with much more word play and good humored genre bending. That's potent stuff for a younger reader, but there's nothing wrong with a challenge. So, all of this is the long way around to saying that this book is sort of a mystery, and possibly a fantasy/adventure, and maybe a coming of age story, but most definitely an ambitious and rewarding introduction for a younger reader to non-linear and fantastical storytelling. Please note that I found this book while browsing Amazon Kindle goodies. I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.

This is a great book, my 6-year-old and I love the series. It has a nice flow and is classic Snicket-Style. Great to read out loud and engage in the mystery. Who does Snicket work for? What is he looking to find in Staind-by-the-Sea? Who and where is Hangfire? Lots to explore!

As a big fan of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" book series, I couldn't help but pick up the first book of the prequel series entitled "All the Wrong Questions". I didn't even know this was a thing until I spotted the first book at a bookstore. The first book was incredibly fun and engaging and now I am on the this book (the 2nd in the series). It's silly, quirky and wildly entertaining. Lemony Snicket is at it again. This definitely isn't a book you have to force yourself to read. It's so addicting, I've changed my day plans just to schedule in reading it! I was focused and hooked on this book the whole time. I've already ordered book 3 and 4 to complete the series!

My 3rd grader got hooked on this series after we finished A Series of Unfortunate Events. He was delighted to find another book series that was fun to read and very engaging.

Great read.

I always wanted to read All The Wrong Questions Series. I'm not disappointed at all.

good

I enjoyed every page of the story. So many quirky bits and funny dialog. Please keep on producing more stuff for us to enjoy. Thank you.

A mi hijo le está encantando, Es una serie juvenil estupenda altamente recomendable, junto con "A Series of Unfortunate Events"