Sick, Sick People

 Lemony Snicket and Lisa Brown would like to cause your offspring harm. Whether they're telling famous tales of woe concerning the Baudelaire children or producing cocktail-mixing manuals for babies, you parents probably want to keep an eye on them. They are, of course, the masterminds behind the Series of Unfortunate Events and the Baby Be of Use books, the latter of which includes the just-plain-evil Baby Do My Banking. The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming is the latest joint effort from these two, and although it's a handsome publication, cloth-bound and foil-stamped in the McSweeney's tradition, it may cause your kids to enjoy the wrong holidays. It mixes Christmas and Hanukkah traditions willy-nilly (it's subtitled A Christmas Story), and thus your little miracles may never hew to the rigid specifications you've so carefully laid out for their eternal souls. Just kidding! The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming is cute, that's all. Written by Snicket (aka Daniel Handler), the world-renowned author, and illustrated colorfully by Brown, it is pretty and shiny, and isn't that what you're really looking for in a thing to buy? You and your innocent ones will just love it.
Tue., Dec. 11, 6 p.m., 2007