The Slippery Slope facts for kids
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| Author | Lemony Snicket (pen name of Daniel Handler) |
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| Illustrator | Brett Helquist |
| Cover artist | Brett Helquist |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Genre | Gothic fiction Absurdist fiction Mystery |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
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Publication date
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September 23, 2003 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 337 |
| ISBN | 0-06-441013-7 |
| OCLC | 52602720 |
| Fic 22 | |
| LC Class | PZ7.S6795 Sl 2003 |
| Preceded by | The Carnivorous Carnival |
| Followed by | The Grim Grotto |
The Slippery Slope is the tenth book in the popular children's series A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was written by Lemony Snicket, which is the pen name for Daniel Handler. The book features amazing drawings by Brett Helquist and first came out on September 23, 2003. In this exciting story, the Baudelaire orphans, Violet and Klaus, climb the dangerous Mortmain Mountains. They are trying to save their baby sister, Sunny, who is stuck with the evil Count Olaf and his strange group. During their adventure, they meet a character they thought was gone forever, and they visit a secret place linked to a mysterious group called "V.F.D." Will they reunite with Sunny and finally escape from Olaf? Read on to find out!
Contents
What Happens in the Story?
The story picks up right after The Carnivorous Carnival. Violet and Klaus Baudelaire are in a caravan rolling down the Mortmain Mountains. Meanwhile, Sunny is trapped in a car with Count Olaf, Esmé Squalor, and their theater group. This group now includes some new, tricky people from the carnival.
A Daring Escape
Violet quickly builds a special parachute, called a drag chute, from things in the caravan. She tells Klaus to mix sticky food together. Klaus pours this gooey mix onto the caravan's tires. The caravan stops right at the edge of a cliff! Violet and Klaus jump out just in time, and the caravan falls over the edge. They are left with only a few clothes.
Meeting New Friends and Old Foes
The siblings start climbing the mountain. Soon, tiny Snow Gnats attack them, so they hide in a cave. Inside, they find Snow Scouts, led by a man named Bruce. He was the one who collected Uncle Monty's reptiles in The Reptile Room. Carmelita Spats, a mean girl from The Austere Academy, is also there and is about to be crowned Snow Queen. A masked Snow Scout talks to Violet and Klaus using secret "V.F.D." phrases.
At night, the masked scout wakes Violet and Klaus. He leads them up a chimney, calling it a "Vertical Flame Diversion." At the top, they find a "Vernacularly Fastened Door." To open it, they must solve three tricky questions about books.
Sunny's Troubles and a Secret Message
Meanwhile, Olaf and his group reach the top of Mount Fraught. Sunny is forced to do all their chores. She even has to sleep in a casserole dish in the car trunk! The next morning, she makes breakfast, but Olaf is angry because it's cold.
Two scary villains arrive: "the woman with hair but no beard" and "the man with a beard but no hair." Even Olaf is scared of them! They announce that they have burned down the nearby V.F.D. headquarters. They give Olaf a special "Snicket File" (but it's missing the last page). They also give Esmé a green object called a Verdant Flammable Device. Sunny cleverly uses this device to create smoke, hoping her siblings will see it.
A Reunion and a Plan
Violet, Klaus, and the masked Snow Scout are now in the burned V.F.D. headquarters. The Snow Scout reveals himself to be Quigley Quagmire! He is the triplet whose siblings thought he died in the fire that destroyed their home. Quigley explains that his mother hid him in an underground passage during the fire, which led to Uncle Monty's house. He learned about V.F.D. from Jacques Snicket and has been searching for his siblings.
The three children then see the green smoke from the mountain above. Violet quickly builds a climbing tool from a ukulele and forks. She uses it with Quigley to climb the frozen stream. They reach Sunny, who wants to spy on Olaf. Violet agrees, and she and Quigley climb back down.
A Tricky Plan and a Narrow Escape
Back at the V.F.D. library, Klaus finds a page from a code book about "Verbal Fridge Dialogue." From a fridge in the headquarters, he learns about a meeting at the "last safe place" on Thursday. Violet, Klaus, and Quigley decide to trap Esmé to trade her for Sunny. They dig a pit overnight and try to lure Esmé with a Verdant Flammable Device. But they feel bad about kidnapping her, so they warn Esmé to avoid the pit. Wearing masks, they climb back up the stream using a toboggan that Esmé had ridden down on.
Klaus pretends to be a volunteer who will trade information about a "sugar bowl" for Sunny. As Olaf and Esmé argue, the Snow Scout troupe arrives, and Carmelita is crowned "False Spring Queen." Olaf and Esmé invite her to join their group. Even though the children warn them, eagles catch the Snow Scouts in a net and fly away with them.
Olaf orders Sunny to be thrown off the mountain, but the White-Faced Women refuse and leave his group. Olaf tries to throw Sunny off himself, but she is hiding behind the car, not in the casserole dish! The three Baudelaires and Quigley escape down the stream on the toboggan. However, the ice cracks, shattering the waterfall and separating Quigley from the Baudelaires.
About the Book's Release
The Slippery Slope was released on September 23, 2003. A huge number of copies, one million, were printed at first! To help promote the book, Daniel Handler, the real author, pretended to be Lemony Snicket's "official representative" at book signings. He visited places like New Jersey, California, Washington, and Minnesota.
In 2003, the book sold 900,000 copies. This made it the second best-selling children's hardback book, right after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! Overall, sales for the A Series of Unfortunate Events books grew from 3.3 million to 3.8 million that year. By August 2006, there were two million copies of The Slippery Slope in print.
Around the World
This book has been translated into many different languages so children all over the world can read it!
- Spanish Castillian: "La Pendiente Resbaladiza" (The Slippery Slope)
- Brazilian Portuguese: "O Escorregador de Gelo" (The Slide of Ice)
- Finnish: "Luikurin liuku" (The Fraudster's Slide)
- Italian: "La scivolosa scarpata" (The Slippery Slope)
- Greek: "Η Ολισθηρή Οροσειρά" (The Sliding Mountain Range)
- Japanese: "つるつるスロープ" (The Slippery Slope)
- Norwegian: "Den frosne fossen" (The Frozen Waterfall)
- Russian: "Скользкий склон" (The Slippery Slope)
- French: "La Pente Glissante" (The Slippery Slope)
- Polish: "Zjezdne zbocze" (The Slippery Slope)
On TV!
The Slippery Slope was also made into a TV show! It became the first and second episodes of the third season of the Netflix television series.
See also
In Spanish: La pendiente resbaladiza para niños
