The Mysterious Benedict Society
by Trenton Lee Stewart
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Book Summary Information
Author: Trenton Lee StewartBrand: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Illustrator: Carson Ellis
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-01
ISBN: 0316003956
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780316003957
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Mysterious Benedict Society
Book Review: *Fantastic* Book About Friendships And Extended Families!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved reading Trenton Lee Stewart's book THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY. It's a wonderful book filled with mystery, suspense, and adventure, and the illustrations by Carson Ellis--on the beginning page of each chapter--are charming.
Readers enter the story through Reynie Muldoon, a young orphan boy who lives at the town orphanage and has no friends. He's smart and observant and answers an ad in the newspaper looking for gifted kids who want "special opportunities." He passes a series of tests and then is put into a group of other gifted kids, who also pass the tests and who are alone or have run away from home and are outcasts, by a man named Mr. Benedict. The other kids--George "Sticky" Washington, Kate Weatherall and Constance Contraire--become a surrogate family for Reynie and for once he feels he belongs. But Mr. Benedict needs the kids to infiltrate a gifted private school to uncover the "how" of a madman who plans on taking over the world. Can these fiercely independent children learn to count on one another and help Mr. Benedict stop the plan?
The book was great and not only did it focus on how friends become families, so that even if readers are orphaned or don't have traditional parents they don't have to be or feel alone, but also how to believe in ones self even when there's no hope.
And it did so with the message hidden in the story itself. Pretty good considering that this is Trenton Lee Stewart's first children's book.
The only minor problem I had was at the end of the story where some of the parents return. I felt that doing so took a little strength away from these children who were anything but ordinary. I felt that the focus should have remained on the extended family that was created by Mr. Benedict, and then the characters would have been stronger. To me, it felt like a cope out, particularly in the case of Sticky Washington, because it seemed like Stewart was trying to give the book a "Disney" type of happy ending.
But either way it's a great book and I highly recommend it to readers of all ages. At the end there's also a sneak peek at the sequel The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey included and a fun quiz to see if readers are "Mysterious Benedict Society" material.
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