The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society (Book #1)
by Trenton Lee Stewart
497 pages
Fiction - Young Adult

Reynie, a highly intelligent orphan, sees a mysterious ad in the newspaper offering special opportunities for gifted children. During the interview and testing process, he befriends Kate, Sticky and Constance who are also gifted in unique ways. And, he meets Mr. Benedict, Milligan, Rhonda and Number Two from the Benedict Society. The children ultimately enter the Benedict Society and are instructed to go undercover on a secret mission. They must attempt to foil evil Mr. Curtain and his henchmen. Adventure ensues!

This book is similar to Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket - minus the magic, darkness and death – highly engaging but also actually child appropriate. Smart children must use their abilities to win the day against horrible odds. It is interesting enough to capture the minds of adults while not be being inappropriate for children. A difficult feat!

The pages of this Young Adult book turn themselves. The story is not predictable and I felt all the mental twists and turns along the way. It is a long but enjoyable book! My mind was constantly searching out riddles and hidden meanings and refused to be rushed along the pages. Adult readers will find the book intellectually stimulating and refreshingly innocent - no sex or politics.

The children were largely orphans and operated for most of the book with minimal assistance from trustworthy adults. This was rectified in the end with unexpected happy personal endings for each of the children. I did not get the sense that the book was saying children should be unsupervised or are smarter/better than adults. Merely that these children were in a particularly difficult situation.

This book was mentioned to me by a homeschooling family about two years ago. Yay, homeschooling families! They have the best ideas.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Middle school students as well as adults that enjoy YA books. Younger readers who are advanced may also want to try it!