The Blank Book by Lemony Snicket and Brett Helquist

Dear Reader,

For many years, I have chronicled the lives of the Baudelaire orphans in a sequence of miserable and upsetting books entitled A Series of Unfortunate Events. Rather than reading such depressing stories, you may prefer this Blank Book, in which you can write down your own miserable and upsetting research.

You may use this volume to record many dreadful things:

• the names of suspicious teachers you have encountered
• details of curious conversations you have overheard
• dreadful information you have found in other books

The Blank Book also offers the following helpful features:

• grimly decorated pages
• numerous unpleasant quotations from A Series of Unfortunate Events
• sinister stickers to help mark your most strange and shocking entries

But I must warn you that once you begin using this book, you must guard it with your life -- or with the life of another allegedly trustworthy person.

With all due respect,