As the three Baudelaire orphans warily approach their new home 埐rufrock Preparatory School : they can't help but notice the enormous stone arch bearing the school's motto Memento Mori or "Remember you will die." This is not a cheerful greeting and certainly marks an inauspicious beginning to a very bleak story just as we have come to expect from Lemony Snickett's Series of Unfortunate Events, the deliciously morbid set of books that began with The Bad Beginning and only got worse. Ages 10+
Lemony Snicket is the legal nom de plume of American novelist Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970). Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of *A Series of Unfortunate Events* (his best known work) and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, Lemony Snicket is both a fictional character and a real person.
Handler was born in San Francisco, California. He attended Commodore Sloat Elementary, Herbert Hoover Middle School and Lowell High School. Handler graduated from Wesleyan University in 1992. He is an alumnus of the San Francisco Boys Chorus.
Handler is married to Lisa Brown, a graphic artist that he met in college.They have a son, Otto, who was born around Halloween 2003. They live in an old Victorian house in San Francisco. Handler's mother is retired City College of San Francisco Dean, Sandra Handler, and his father, Louis Handler, is an accountant. He also has a younger sister, Rebecca Handler.