Color me skeptical; I simply don’t think that kids “get” or enjoy black comedy and dark humor. It seems more likely that these books are foisted upon kids by their parents, who are just convinced that little johnny “appreciates” irony and dark humor at such a young age.
My kids (an eleven year old and a pair of ten year olds) got a set from their aunt last year and tore through them with great enjoyment, asking for the new ones as soon as they come out. I’ve read a few, and don’t think there’s much there that’s beyond them, even the more sophisticated jokes snuck in to entertain adults. In any event, whatever they don’t get, there’s enough that they do to keep 'em entertained.
I teach seventh grade, and a lot of my students are reading them- I can’t remember a week in the last few years that someone wasn’t carrying one around to read during study hall.
My casual observations would put them below only Harry Potter in popularity.
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘kids,’ but my twelve-year-olds certainly get and enjoy black humor. I remember passing around ‘dead baby jokes’ at a pretty young age.
I’ve got a six year old first grader and an eight year old third grader. They love these books. They find them engaging, the story plotlines are much different than what they’re used to, and often funny (although maybe not funny in all of the spots that you would). They are both currently reading the eleventh book. I don’t even know how they got started on them, but I for one didn’t foist them upon them.
My mother-in-law is a 4th grade teacher and she says that her students love them. Kids aren’t stupid. They know that life is often filled with injustice, malice, persecution and idiocy–heck, a big part of being a kid is being made to do seemingly arbitrary and pointless things by people bigger than you. Lemony Snicket confirms their suspicions. And even though Violet, Klaus and Sunny face all these problems, they overcome them through smarts and bravery. That’s not such a bad message for kids.
My seven (turned 7 yesterday) and eight year old really like Lemony Snicket and are eagerly awaiting the release of the movie. They also want the PC game for a Christmans present. They started by reading them, but finished by listening to the books on CD (some read by the author and most by Tim Curry).
Some parts of the books have infiltrated our everyday life such as the kids saying “XYZ is IN” or “XYZ is OUT”, they have also renamed the next street “Dark Avenue” because of all the trees, and when using an odd or big word, they sometimes add the definition by stating “which in this case means…”.
Well I haven’t read the books, nor have my kids (yet) but I can speak to the fact that some kids really dig dark humor. I know I did when I was a kid.
Of course kids enjoy dark humor! How else do you think Roald Dahl became popular? 
I have an eight year old and a thirteen year old who listen to them in the car with me. Maybe some of it goes over the eight year old’s head, but I hear the other one giggling in all the right places. (She told me other day that she plans to name her first girl-child Esme!)
As a librarian who’s been spending time at the children’s desk, I can tell you that kids ask for them all the time, all the copies are checked out, and there are usually several on the hold shelf, which means that kids care enough about them to fill out a form asking for the title they want. The knockoffs are also leaping off the shelves–the most prominent is The Spiderwick Chronicles.
I’ve heard that Lemony Snicket is a hit as a visiting author to schools and whatnot (what actually happens is that the author shows up under his real name, announcing that LS was unavoidably detained by some unnamed horrific circumstance).
All in all, the latest trend in children’s publishing is the gothic novel lite, which I must say I like better than the previous trends of (in chronological order) gross-out, aliens, and tacky witchcraft–after these, the HP/fantasy trend was an improvement, and this gothic thing is the newest permutation. Things are looking up in children’s literature!
After wanting to read them for some time, I finally borrowed the first 5 from my niece. I can see how kids would like them: they’re subversive, ironical in a way kids can understand, and most of all they accurately reflect that part of any child’s life when the adults just won’t listen. And it helps that the Baudelaires are always right.
That said, they depressed the hell out of me, and I’m sure they would have done so to me if I had read them as a child. Even if it’s supposed to be funny and ironic, the unremitting misery, and the death of poor dear Uncle Monty, did me in. I had to stop midway through the fourth book, the one about the mill. I couldn’t take it any more. I’d like to punch Mr. Poe right on the snoot. And don’t get me started on Count Olaf…
My 10 year old loves them, and has written book reports showing an appreciation for the humor (Don’t read this! These kids face an evil uncle, deadly poisonous mushrooms, and off-key singing!).
Most of Sunny’s utterings, and Snicket’s oblique references to himself whoosh right by him…
Me too. I’ve only read bits and pieces, because they really just don’t appeal to me at all. I’m happy the kids like them and all, but they aren’t my cup of tea.
Roald Dahl was doing black humour childrens books long before and with great success.
Kids love this sort of thing. I think it’s because adults don’t like to talk about things like death and dying and illness and fires and horrible wasting diseases, and kids are curious. I tore through the Roald Dahl oevre as a child, some of which is pretty damned disturbing (I still have bad thoughts about the Grand High Witch, though), and kids love things like the Garbage Pail Kids and such. Kids might be more likely to enjoy black humor, because they’re still experimenting with ideas about death and suffering. Adults are sometimes too familiar with real death and real suffering.
My first thought! I recall relishing the grotesqueries of Dahl. Remember how James and the Giant Peach opens, with his folks getting mauled to death by an escaped rhino? That was balls, and after so much sappy kids’ lit, some ballsiness was greatly appreciated.
We loved gross jokes, sick stickers, the whole lot.
Oh, PS: The nine-year-olds love LS! No foisting required.