The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket

Genre: Children's Literature

Setting: In a fictional mountain range.

First Sentence: A man of my acquaintance once wrote a poem called "The Road Less Traveled," describing a journey he took through the woods along a path most travelers never used.

This novel is the tenth of the author's thirteen book series entitled "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

When we last saw the Baudelaire orphans. at the end of "The Carnivorous Carnival," they were traveling with Count Olaf towards the Mortmain Mountains.  Sunny is in the front seat of Olaf's automobile with Esme. Olaf is driving.  Klaus and Violet are in a caravan being pulled by the car.

And Count Olaf knows who the orphans are.

Count Olaf knows that he only needs one of the Baudelaire orphans to claim the orphans' vast fortune.  Since Sunny is with him, the evil count decides to rid himself of the two older siblings.

Rid himself here means to cause the death of the older orphans.

Fortunately, Klaus and Violet do not die.

So they continue their quest to find the V.F.D. headquarters.  And to rescue Sunny from the evil count's clutches.

Along the way the two children make  some interesting discoveries.

They learn that snow gnats avoid smoke.
They find the Snow Scouts.
They meet two unpleasant people from earlier episodes.
They discover an orphan triplet whose travels have paralleled  those of the Baudelaires.
They climb a frozen waterfall.
And, they realize that Sunny is no longer a baby.

All three of the orphans show that they are no longer the count's helpless victims.

Now they are showing that they are intrepid and brave explorers who can up to the count's treachery.

I really liked this book.  The characters of the children are developing into strong interesting characters which I like.

Now, on to the next book.