By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Sara Scott

Title: A House Called Awful End
Author: Philip Ardagh
Illustrator: David Roberts
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
No.of pages: 122

If you are a reader that liked The Series of Unfortunate Events, you'll love A House Called Awful End! It is the story of an unlucky little boy named Eddie who has to live with his mad Uncle Jack and even madder Aunt Maud for awhile because his parents caught a disease that turns them yellow and crinkly around the edges. His parents don't want him to catch it.

When he is sent to his Uncle and Aunt's house, he meets Malcom, a stuffed stoat [an animal which is like a weasel] who is treated like a real person! Aunt Maud talks to the stoat a lot in this chapter, but she doesn't make any sense. Eddie then becomes an orphan when his parents are trapped in a burning building and they die. Eddie is now on his own…. except for his absent-minded relatives. He goes to live at St. Horrid's Home for Grateful Orphans, which is a horrible place because they make the orphans work like servants. In the end, Eddie helps the orphans, and you will see how and why if you choose to read A House Called Awful End.

As you can tell, this book is very exciting. On a scale of one to ten, I'd rate this book a seven. It reminds me of books by Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket. I recommend this to people around the ages of ten and twelve. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that the author was writing too much like Lemony Snicket! I thought he was copying Lemony's style. A House Called Awful End was otherwise a pretty good book. (October, 2002)