The Penultimate Peril

Article posted December 8, 2006 at 02:37 AM GMT0 • Reads 54

The Penultimate Peril

Core: 4



The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket is the 12th book of The Series of Unfortunate Events. This book is a great choice for summer reading. The series is about three orphans, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who try to overcome the troubled events in their lives. The villain in the series is Count Olaf. He is always trying to get the Baudelaire’s fortune. The Baudelaires inherited the fortune when their parents died in a fire that destroyed their home. In The Penultimate Peril, the Baudelaires arrived at Hotel Denouement because they knew a mysterious sugar bowl was going to be delivered there. The Baudelaires job was to keep the sugar bowl from falling into the wrong hands. During their stay at the hotel, the Baudelaires were accused of murdering a man named Dewey Denouement. The murder was more Count Olaf’s fault because he dropped a harpoon gun and the trigger went off. The harpoon then killed Dewey Denouement.

I judge books on character, plot, type of story, and setting. This book gets a thumbs up on three of the four criteria. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a great book to read.

The characters in this book are fabulous. The main characters are Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire and Count Olaf. I admire how the Baudelaires always solve their dilemmas together. Each Baudelaire has a special skill that helps them solve mysteries. Violet is good at inventing things and working with machines. Klaus is good at reading and figuring out mysteries and codes, and Sunny has sharp teeth that are good for biting and cutting things. I love the way Count Olaf is always dressed up in a different disguise and always has a different scheme to try and steal the Baudelaire’s fortune. I loved how Lemony Snicket brought characters from his previous books into this story. Each book in the series has different characters except for Violet, Klaus, Sunny, and Count Olaf. Some of the characters that are brought back into this story are Vice Principal Nero, Mr. Remora, and Mrs. Bass from Prufrock Preparatory. Sir and Charles are brought back from the lumber mill and Justice Strauss and Jerome Squalor are brought back from some of the Baudelaires homes. I really like the way the author did this.

The Penultimate Peril has an exceptional plot. As you read through the book, the story is unpredictable. For example, everyone knew the sugar bowl was in the laundry room and that the room had a lock on it. Klaus unexpectedly opened the lock for Count Olaf and surprisingly, the sugar bowl was not there. The whole story leaves you hanging and just makes you want to keep reading and reading.

This book is a mystery. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are always trying to figure out every mystery they can. The whole story just keeps you guessing. In The Penultimate Peril, Lemony Snicket finds a way to mix mystery and humor together. I love reading books that have humor and mysteries. This book is fabulous because of the way he does it. Normally, you don’t see mystery books that have humor in them. You normally find either one or the other. If you like mystery books and funny books, then this book is a perfect book for you. Sometimes the author just starts talking about things that don’t have anything to do with the book. At the beginning of Chapter 2, Lemony Snicket starts talking about holding the book up to a mirror. He also wrote some words that you could only read if you did hold it up to a mirror. I think it is funny how he does that sometimes.

The only downfall in the book was the setting. I would have liked to have seen some of the adventure take place in different places and not just in Hotel Denouement the whole time. I enjoyed the whole book except for the setting. Lemony Snicket could have put some events that happened at sea because they were right by the sea or maybe a scene or two just off the hotel grounds. Everything else in the book was fantastic.

I highly recommend this book for any summer reading. It is not a book that you will sit down and be bored with. You won’t say, “Why do I have to read this?” This book is a fun mystery that makes you want to keep reading and reading until you figure out what happens next. Most kids hate reading over the summer but if they had to read this book, they might not complain anymore. I recommend this book for anyone in the 3rd grade or up. This book is by far one of the best books I have ever read! If you have ever read any other books in The Series of Unfortunate Events, you will find that The Penultimate Peril is the best one so far!

Andre Agassi

Article posted May 11, 2007 at 03:47 AM GMT0 • Reads 32

“Agassi with the shot down the line, his opponent can’t get to it and Agassi wins the match!” The topic I chose was Andre Agassi. Andre Agassi is a retired US tennis player. I think Andre is an interesting topic because I love tennis and I used to love following him and his career.

Andre was born on April 29, 1970. As a child, Andre Agassi grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. His father, Mike Agassi, was obsessed with producing a top ranked tennis player. Andre grew up with three siblings, Rita, Phillip, and Tami Agassi. Mike pushed all four children to the limit when it came to tennis.

Andre Agassi was such a good tennis player at a young age. Mike Agassi hung tennis balls above Andre’s crib and gave him paddles and balloons while in a high chair to get Andre interested in tennis. When Andre was five years old, he began practicing with some of the professionals on tour like Jimmy Connors and Roscoe Tanner. Agassi signed his first autograph when he was just six years old. His dad also forced him to practice everyday, hitting three thousand to five thousand tennis balls a day. Agassi developed into a great tennis star by practicing every day.

Agassi also played in tennis tournaments as a child. Still, he was pressured by his father to win. If Andre did not get first place in the tournament or win the match, he would get an earful from his father. Mike Agassi only kept first place trophies; the other trophies were smashed on the ground and then swept into the trash can.

As a teenager, Andre’s father sent him off to a tennis school in Florida. The school was called Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Bollettieri soon refunded the Agassi family their money and gave Andre a scholarship to the school. Nick taught Andre a ton while he was at the academy and he stayed friends with Andre through his professional career.

While at the academy, Andre got into some trouble. He was not always like he is now. Andre drank his first beer at the age of twelve and got drunk for the first time at age thirteen. He also smashed racquets and grew a mohawk haircut. By the time he was fourteen and fifteen, Andre began drinking a whole lot and started trying out some marijuana. He was a different player. One time, on a televised tournament, Andre wore ripped jeans, pink lipstick, and grew out his pinky finger nail and painted it pink. One year after being sent to the academy, Andre became emotionless and depressed. Agassi later staightened himself out and turned pro at the age of sixteen.

When Andre was young on tour, he wasn’t well liked. He was a rebel. He disobeyed dress-codes, cursed at umpires, made comments at other players, and sometimes got into trouble with the fans. He seemed to be getting fined all of the time. As Agassi matured, he developed into a nice person. People then began to like him and look up to him.

Andre Agassi’s playing style consists of baseline play, but unlike most players, Agassi usually makes contact with the ball in front of the baseline. This unique style is extremely difficult for most professionals to do. Andre could only execute this because of his short backswing and his outstanding hand-eye coordination. His main strategy was to wear down his opponent. He did this by minimizing time between points and making his opponent run around the court. By hitting the ball side to side, he gained his nickname, “The Punisher.”

One of Andre Agassi’s weakest attributes was his serve. He worked on it hard over the course of his career and he eventually developed an effective serve. His best serve was a hard slice to ace opponents and to send them out wide. Then he would hit a shot back to the other side of the court to win the point. On his second serve, a kick serve was his best bet, especially when he was playing in his younger days.

As Agassi grew older and started getting more injuries, he started a more aggressive style of play. He did this to keep his opponent on defense most of the time and to limit his own amount of running while on the court. The disadvantages of this were that it increased the amount of errors he made and it limited his options from the baseline.

Andre is a former number one ranked tennis player. During his career, he won eight Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal. His eight Grand Slam titles include four Australian Open singles titles, one French open singles title, one Wimbledon singles title, and two US Open singles titles. Even with all of his success, Agassi had only finished the year ranked number one in the world once and that was in 1999. His most successful year in terms of prize money was in 1999 also, winning over four million dollars and finishing his first time at the top of the money rank list. This was also the only year he won two Grand Slam singles titles, the French Open and the US Open. Along with the eight Grand Slam wins, he also has been runner up seven times. While playing, he earned over thirty one million dollars in prize money alone. He also made over twenty five million dollars a year just from endorsements. Also during his career, he won sixty singles tennis tournament titles. He also won a doubles tennis tournament title. Andre is the only tennis player to have ever won the ATP Most Improved Player Award two times. He has won seventeen ATP Master Series tournaments which is more than any other player. During his career, he traveled around the world and has won singles titles in eleven different countries. Among tennis players, Andre Agassi ranks second in career prize money with a little over thirty one million dollars. He ranks only behind Pete Sampras who earned over forty three million dollars of prize money over his career. The TENNIS magazine ranked Agassi as the seventh greatest male tennis player from 1965 to 2005.

When 2006 came around, Agassi was filled with multiple injuries which limited his playing. Finally, Agassi announced that he would retire after the 2006 season. Andre had a disease called sciatica. The sciatica caused two bulging disks on his back. He also had Spondylolisthesis which is a bone spur that interferes with the nerve. On his last match, he was in a ton of pain. When the match finished, he received an eight minute standing ovation from the fans and then gave a retirement speech. Unfortunately, Agassi’s career came to an end.

There are many interesting facts about Andre Agassi. One is that Andre Agassi and his wife, Steffi Graf, were on the Genworth Financial television commercial. Another funny fact about Andre is that during the 1988 US Open quarterfinals against Jimmy Connors, a fan yelled to Connors that he is a legend so he should beat Agassi. Jimmy then hit the ball into the stands as a souvenir to the fan even though Agassi won the match in straight sets. In 2006, a newspaper writer said that Agassi would never be a record breaker. He said that he did not even hold the most Grand Slams in his house. He was referring to Agassi’s wife, Steffi Graf, who won twenty two Grand Slams compared to Agassi’s eight.

Since Agassi has retired at the end of the 2006 season, he has enjoyed being home. He loves spending time with his wife, Steffi Graf (a former tennis player), and his two children, Jaden, 5, and Jaz, 3. He currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and owns several vacation homes.

Andre Agassi has done many great deeds for charity. He founded the Andre Agassi Charitable Association in 1994 which helps kids in Las Vegas. In 1995, he was awarded the ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award for helping disadvantaged kids. Andre’s Boy’s and Girl’s Club has two thousand children through the year and have a world class junior tennis team. The club also has a basketball program and a system that involves academics and athletics. On top of all this, he opened up the Andre Agassi College Preparatory in 2001. This is a free charter school for at-risk kids in the area. Andre’s foundation also donated funding to Child Haven for new classrooms in 1997. Child Haven is a residential facility for abused and neglected kids. They also provided seven hundred, twenty thousand dollars to help a building in the Andre Agassi Cottage for Medical Fragile Children.

During his career, Andre has conquered many obstacles. He has conquered many obstacles with his father, and mainly straightened himself out. He has had a very successful career and is one of the best players that have ever played tennis. Agassi is a great role model, now, for junior, rising tennis stars. He enjoys helping other kids with his foundation and contributions to charity. Now, when people think about Andre Agassi, they think of a nice, well-liked person, who was a great tennis player. Overall, I think he was one of the best to ever play the game.