The Mysterious Howling

This story is a real let-down. And not too much actually happens. First of all, the “mysterious howling” of the title is only mentioned in the final chapter and left mysterious (this book is the first in a series). Is it too much to ask to tell a complete story in one book? I have read several other series for children that manage to do this. But this one is one tedious set-up. In this story the main character is a 15-year-old orphan turned governess for three younger children supposedly raised by wolves. I found the vocabulary within to be much too sophisticated at times. Here are a few of the words and phrases that appear in this story:

toilette, inexorably, botanical, apropos, solvent, behavioral psychology, Baroque sensibility, alma mater, eloquence, rustic, summons, reverie, distraught, enigmatic, inscrutable

Inscrutable, indeed. And yet when I finished reading the story and asked my kids what they thought, my eldest (aged 10) replied, “Awesome” and my youngest (aged 7) wanted to know what the next book in the series was called. I'm beginning to suspect my kids just enjoy being read to, period. (It also affords my 7-year-old an opportunity to climb into my lap.) I was often quite bored by this tale and did not find it clever in the slightest. I've read the first four of the Lemony Snicket books and they don't compare at all.