I could say that I wasn't warned.

We lurve books.

Our kids lurve books. A comment on a recent report card for one of the twins was:

"He is an avid reader and it is sometimes difficult for him to transition from independent reading to a different activity" Translation: canIjustreadonemorepage?????

The 9 1/2 y.o. inhales books with an astounding speed coupled with retention. Case in point, in second grade, at 7 y.o. he picked up "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" from the classroom library, completed it during school hours and 9 months later recounted meticulous details about the story before watching the film for the first time.

We try to keep them all three boys at 7 & 9, stimulated, age-appropriate and happy, i.e. not the last three Harry Potters, Star Wars graphic novels, Dumas' Three Musketeers or Pokemon.

We've done pretty well, with some good advice and creativity, keeping their love for reading engaged and appropriate. On a recent trip to the library, the three of them and I agreed that we would start Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I've heard good things about the series. Kids seem to like them and we've been needing a new series. This was a Wednesday. We began "The Bad Beginning". By the time we hit our driveway, in under 5 minutes, the parents were killed in a blazing inferno, setting the three orphans off on the inspiration for the title.

By Friday's commute home, bearing in mind that thanks to my mom, I don't drive them on this 10-15 minute trip to school everyday, I was horrified by what we were hearing. To give an idea, the guardian had just backhanded the 12 y.o. boy, after caging the infant. I turned off the CD and said, "do you guys *like* this book?!" To which, they uniformly responded, "can you turn it back on ?!"

At this point, my 9 y.o. makes a vague reference to liking the second book.
"what do you mean", I inquire.
"I finished it at school", he says.

To clarify, it is a 190 page book. He actually participates at school. He's finished it in 2 days. I'm really in trouble with this one. But I digress.

"does the second book get any better?" I ask, giving serious consideration to home schooling so as to shelter my babies from anything ugly, scary or bad.....like the book I'm playing for them.

"MOH-M...it is the *series* of *unfortunate* events. Can you turn it back on now?"