MSCL.com

Handler has also said that the books follow the great Jewish traditions: The Baudelaire orphans behave well and bravely because it's the right thing to do, not because it will get them ahead. "Judaism doesn't really promise any reward, they just emphasize that good behavior is more or less its own reward, " he said.

As a kid, Handler ate up the books of Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey -- two dark and funny authors. Today, what he can't bear are moralistic books for children.

"I think you learn something from any good book, and I think that one's education comes largely from literature. But over and over, the message of children's books is, 'If you behave well, you'll be rewarded.' Which is not a very Jewish message. It is just not an interesting message to me, and not a true one."

Handler had learned more interesting messages at home: His father fled Germany as a young boy. "I knew about the Holocaust at an earlier age than most people learn about it, I think, and so the idea that the world could suddenly go very wrong -- and that it had no bearing on what sort of person you were -- sunk in pretty early. And it's affected my politics and my writing and my life."

filthy, evil bad guy