Dillweed is a lonely child, and as a result he has become quite a dark, vengeful child.  When his parents abandon him to go off into the world and have their own adventures, leaving him in the care of the selfish Umblud and Perfidia, Dillweed takes matters into his own hands.  In the macabre tradition of Edward Gorey and Lemony Snicket, Heide’s book is hilariously disturbing.  Ellis (who has illustrated such books as The Composer is Dead by Lemony Snicket) has created washed out gouache illustrations that perfectly compliment Heide’s sparse, wicked prose, and her depictions of the unpleasant adults are delightfully grotesque.  While written at a low reading level, the morbid content of the book is more appropriate for older children and adults with an appreciation for dark humor– the fate of Dillweed’s parents and guardians is unpleasant, to say the least.