The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the First)

The Baudelaire orphans — Violet, Klaus, and Sunny — are placed in the care of the villainous Count Olaf after their parents die in a fire. Every adult institution designed to protect them fails: the banking system, the legal system, the educational system, well-meaning distant relatives. Count Olaf nearly gets away with everything, repeatedly, because adults keep giving him the benefit of the doubt over the children who are telling the truth. Snicket writes directly to the child reader in a voice that treats them as intelligent enough to understand that the world is not fair — and that this is important information that adults would prefer to withhold. The most sustained institutional satire ever written for children, disguised as gothic comedy. Read the first book and if your child responds, the series rewards everything they bring to it.