"Ha!" Count Olaf shrieked, pointing at the Baudelaire orphans with a
bony finger, and the children were thankful for small mercies. A small
mercy is simply a tiny thing that has gone right in a world gone wrong,
like a sprig of delicious parsley next to a spoiled tuna sandwich, or a
lovely dandelion in a garden that is being devoured by vicious goats.
A small mercy, like a small flyswatter, is unlikely to be of any real help,
but nonetheless the three siblings, even in their horror and disgust at
seeing Olaf again, were thankful for the small mercy that the villian had
apparently lost interest in his new laugh.

^lol. I see.
Well remember it was targeted to an audience that was much younger, so some of the kids had no idea what the words meant.

And yes, I read the animorph books too much when i was younger.
My mom made me stop cuz I read them all the time. lol

I disliked the movie. I don't think I want to read the books...

But plenty of books are written for children, and they don't define things. We don't want to raise a slothful generation, do we? Let them embrace the dictionary