The Reptile Room

The importance of teamwork is a common theme throughout middle-grade literature, especially within the gothic, horror, and mystery genres. In A Series of Unfortunate Events, Violet Baudelaire, Klaus Baudelaire, and Sunny Baudelaire are left alone when their parents die. Although other kind and well-meaning adults come into their lives, these adults tend to be oblivious and incompetent when it comes to helping the Baudelaires. In each installment, the children face seemingly impossible circumstances, and they only triumph (or at least survive) because of their teamwork as siblings.

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny each possess unusually impressive abilities and wisdom for children their ages, but it is only by combining all of their traits and abilities that they are repeatedly able to survive and expose Count Olaf’s evil plans while ensuring that they hold onto their inheritance. For example, in The Reptile Room, the highly literate Klaus quickly researches the Mamba du Mal snake to discover that it couldn’t have killed Uncle Monty, suggesting a human culprit (Count Olaf) instead. Violet, a budding mechanical engineer, creates a makeshift lockpick to gain access to the contents of Count Olaf’s suitcase, then assembles the evidence by viewing it parts of a “machine” before presenting the case to the adults.