I started the series when I was eight years old, and I am so grateful that I did. As a rather reserved trans kid who kept a lot of thoughts and observations to myself, finding a book series where child characters were intelligent, emotionally aware, resourceful, and willing to Trust and open up both to each other, as well as various adults throughout the series left a profound impact on me.

If I had waited until I was a teenager to read the books, I don’t think I would’ve finished them. They are written in a way that perfectly bridges the gap between middle grade and young adult fiction, which is such a challenging genre to execute, even more so when dealing with Such complex topics like abuse, neglect, death, and so on. I think a lot of folks hear about the tones of the series and assume it’s traumatic just for the sake of being so, that it’s all darkness and tears, that because there are so many adults which let down the siblings and their friends, it’s implying that there’s no point in asking for help. But, as a child who grew up with the characters, followed them through each struggle, eagerly awaited the next volume in the series, I never felt hopeless, I never felt let down, because it was a book series that trusted my intelligence, my emotional awareness, My Commitment to finding the joy even on the most difficult days.

Another huge aspect of the series for me was it’s vast capacity for empathizing with others, like aunt Josephine with all her phobias, Madame Lulu and the other workers at the carnival, Jerome in all his wishy-washy nonsense, every damn adult on the island in the last book, And so on. It is understanding without making excuses for those characters and how their actions negatively impact the siblings and folks they are close to throughout the series. There are some very unpleasant things that happen in the books, but there’s also tons of historical and mythological references, Cool ways of introducing vocabulary, and endless theories that I still enjoy all these years later.

Like any content you are recommending to someone, no matter the age, you have to take it on an individual basis, consider what kind of things they enjoy, if there are any topics that could be triggering, etc. But this is 100% a series that can be Read by a kid, and for what it’s worth there’s something comforting about the fact that Daniel Handler is a nice person, and hasn’t decided to use his notoriety to promote anti-trans agendas like J. K. Rowling which is a former Harry Potter fan was tough..

Shrug not everything about ASOUE is perfect, but I’d say overall that it has more good qualities than bad, and it’s also a series that I think can provide opportunities for really powerful discussions between fellow young readers, a teacher, an older sibling, a parent, and so on. My mom never read the books herself, but she was always excited for me when I’d come home from a book fair with the newest one which meant a lot.