Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) made this very clear in an interview that I saw several years ago. He said that in order for children to be heroes, the fir

Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) made this very clear in an interview that I saw several years ago. He said that in order for children to be heroes, the first thing that you have to do in any children's book is get rid of the parents. Sometimes you can get away with putting the child in a place the parents cannot reach, but it's far more common to kill them off. Only this way can the child rise to the occasion, demonstrate leadership, and save the day. I hadn't noticed this pattern before he said that, but now I see it everywhere. Of course, in "A Series of Unfortunate Events," the parents die in a fire on the first page of the series. And then, as the books say, things go downhill from there... (I absolutely love that series, and so do my children, although it might be too dark for many.)