The Wide Window

The Wide Window is the third of the thirteen books in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the sequence Lemony Snicket wrote about the Baudelaire children. It appeared in 2000 with illustrations by Brett Helquist.

Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are placed in the care of Aunt Josephine, who keeps a house on a hill above Lake Lachrymose, a stretch of water large enough to have produced hurricanes. Cooking frightens her, and so do the telephone and her own doormat; the thing she is not afraid of is grammar, which fills the shelves behind the wide window of the title. Running an errand at the grocery store, the children meet a cheerful sailor who calls himself Captain Sham and who is, they are certain, the villain who has pursued them since the first book, but their guardian will not hear of it.

When Josephine vanishes during the night, the children are left to work out what has happened without an adult who believes them, and a lawyer who misses what is in front of him arranges their next placement.