A truly unfortunate event took place at the Spangenberg Theatre last week. Daniel Handler, better known as Lemony Snicket, visited the school for storytelling and book signing.

The event was hosted by the Linden Tree Bookstore and owner Dennis Ronberg and tickets sold for $15 at the bookstore. Through this unfortunate event, over 800 tickets were sold and $3 per ticket sold was donated to the Palo Alto libraries. The event encountered a few problems prior to the show. Spangenberg had been booked for the same night both by Gunn for the Symphonic band concert and Linden Tree. However, band teacher Todd Summers offered for the Snicket audience to stay for the concert with no additional ticket fee.

Snicket arrived to autograph his newest book, The Penultimate Peril, the 12th and latest installment to the morbid series. In addition to books included with the ticket fee, the audience enjoyed the amusingly sarcastic Snicket’s storytelling. Ronberg introduced Snicket and a man walked in from the back of the theater. “I don’t know who that man is,” he said about Ronberg, “Or why he’d tell you such a horrible lie. Mr. Snicket wanted very much to be here, but I’m afraid something terrible has happened to him.” Snicket’s show included him playing accordion, singing and reading dramatically from his newest book.

Hundreds of people waited for his signature. Ronberg told the audience that the book signing had even lasted until 12 a.m. in a previous Snicket visit to Colorado. Events were provided for the audience in Spangenberg while they waited. Tom Farley of the Spontaneous Storytellers was telling stories after Snicket left for the choir room to sign books. Raffle winners won a Lemony Snicket alarm clock and t-shirt. The book signing was conducted in a numerical order, depending on the number of the ticket purchased. People were shipped to the choir room in groups of 50 to 100. Embossing the book was an alternative to the autograph.

More than an hour before the event, the line to enter snaked around the theater, reaching the amphitheater. Children of all ages with their parents and Gunn students patiently stood in line. Juniors Laura Fraley and Kelsey McBride, employees of Linden Tree Bookstore, helped the event run smoothly. “I was making sure everyone got in and not go insane,” Fraley said.