13 Words

13 Words

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13 Words
By Lemony Snicket Illustrated by Maira Kalman. HarperCollins, $17. All ages.

In a typical children's word book, you'd expect to find basic vocabulary—bird, cake and hat. You'll also see these words in the collaboration between Lemony Snicket and Maira Kalman. But here, the famously macabre Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) follows bird with despondent, and sends a goat and dog to buy a hat at a "haberdashery" with the aim of cheering up their avian friend.

Kalman's signature style—familiar from various New Yorker covers, children's books like Max Makes a Million and the New York Times blog And the Pursuit of Happiness—perfectly suits the tongue-in-cheek text. Each character is wryly expressive, from the nattily dressed goat to the aria-belting "mezzo-soprano." Fittingly, the witty tale ends right about when she sings.—Carolyn Juris