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| The Mysterious Benedict Society | 
 enlarge | Author: Trenton Lee Stewart
Creator: Carson Ellis
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $3.69
You Save: $3.30 (47%)
New (40) Used (9) Collectible (1) from $3.69
Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 367
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0316003956
EAN: 9780316003957
ASIN: 0316003956
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
"Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?"
When this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to take a series of mysterious, mind-bending tests. (And you, dear reader, can test your wits right alongside them.) But in the end just four very special children will succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete. To accomplish it they will have to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules.
As our heroes face physical and mental trials beyond their wildest imaginations, they have no choice but to turn to each other for support. But with their newfound friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all?
Welcome to the Mysterious Benedict Society.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 84 more reviews...
 Great story to read aloud June 26, 2007
95 out of 98 found this review helpful
I read to my two sons, age 8 and 9 every night. I was looking for something just a little bit different. Typically they like illustrations to flesh out the narrative, like in the Moomintroll books or Here Be Monsters. The Mysterious Benedict Society is not (alas!) profusely illustrated so when we started it they sort of passively lay back in their beds to listen. By about the 4th page they were sitting up and by the end of the first chapter they were draped over my shoulders reading the pages with me. This book is absolutely captivating for young kids! We would pause while reading to see if we could work out what would happen next or how a knotty problem was overcome; my sons were absorbecd from beginning to end. Children can easily see themselves as the protagonists amd they love to try to figure out the puzzles. Mr. Stewart wants you to try to solve the mysteries with his characters and his writing sparkles with wit and humor. I certainly hope he has more childrens' books for us in the future. Highly recommended!
Loads of fun! March 21, 2007
38 out of 41 found this review helpful
I just loved this book. From start to finish it was flat out great. The characters were all interesting and deep (as opposed to superficial cliches), and the plot had some clever twists and neat puzzles. It was fun solving those puzzles along with the characters, too. So if you're looking for a fun read that's not about magic and dragons (as way too many kids books today are), I highly recommend The Mysterious Benedict Society! I can't wait for the sequel.
Great book April 4, 2007
34 out of 37 found this review helpful
I'm an adult with a child too young to read this one, but I'll put it away for a few years and bring it out again when the time is right. It is a great read with a unique story line, puzzles organically built in to the story, and good pacing. Best of all were the characters, especially the children, who came to life for me. Each one is an individual who is chose become part of the Society, not always for obvious reasons, but because of the contribution only they can make to the success of the mission. It's a great, old-fashioned-type children's book and I highly recommend it to parents looking for a book for their own precocious children.
 Doesn't live up to its own standard April 6, 2007
30 out of 57 found this review helpful
The blurb in the front of this book doesn't quite cover the gist of the story, only describing the first two chapters. In a nutshell, four orphan children face the trials of becoming secret spies at a private school located on an island. It is neither as interesting nor as dull as that description sounds. In fact, for a book that talks a great deal about being special and different, this book is extremely mediocre.
The book basically espouses a radio-and-tv-free ideology and leans on individualism in aid of team-work as panacea to the world's ills. There is a great deal of talk about books and being different and being smart without much substance. There are several rather clunky explanations of words and subjects that interupt the flow of text. Also, the terrible "Emergency" that is present thoughout the book simply isn't as mesmerizing as the author intends it to be. Because of these foibles, I would lower the age level for this book from 9-12 to 8-10. Even younger would be able to have it read to them.
Author Stewart missed the magical goal of helping the reader feel that THEY could be one of the characters. In other words, this is a book about smart kids for other kids not quite as, well, smart.
All-purpose buckets o' fun December 9, 2007
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
How do librarians decide what children's book they want to read next? Well, there are professional reviews, online reviews, and good old-fashioned word of mouth. And when it came to "The Mysterious Benedict Society", I picked up this 486-page tome, turned it about, and then needed a quickie confirmation from somebody as to whether or not I should shell out a significant portion of time to read this puppy. As it happened, a librarian I knew and trusted assured me that it wasn't all that good and that I shouldn't waste my days. Fair enough. I gave away my copy and decided to forget all about it. But then the book's name kept cropping up left and right. Oh, I should really read it! Oh, it's really good! Oh, you haven't read it? What's wrong with you? Eventually, the pressure got to be too much. I couldn't take it any more. As far as I could ascertain I was the only children's librarian in the WORLD who hadn't read "The Mysterious Benedict Society", and that was going to have to change. So I borrowed a library copy, took it home, and fell in love. Once in a while you just want to read a book that's fun. This book is precisely that. Smart and thoroughly a good good read.
Reynie Muldoon doesn't think of himself as extraordinary. He thinks of himself as weird and out of place. An orphan, Reynie and his tutor one day spot an advertisement that reads, "ARE YOU A GIFTED CHILD LOOKING FOR SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES?" He is, as it happens, and that means taking a series of tests. Odd tests. Odd, increasingly peculiar tests that go beyond the classroom, or even the realm of the normal. By the end of the puzzles Reynie has passed, as have three other rather remarkable children. Sticky Washington is a bit of a bookworm, but the kind of kid who never forgets a single fact that he reads. Kate Wetherall is an athletic type who carries a handy bucket with her wherever it is that she goes. And Constance Contraire is very small, very rude, and very stubborn. Together, these kids have been recruited by a Mr. Benedict to infiltrate the very prestigious Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened and discover what it is that the school's devious head is planning. They know that it's evil and dangerous, but beyond that they are out of information. So it is that our four heroes become spies and set out to save the world using their very individual abilities.
I've heard this book referred to as two different stories smooshed together into a single tale. That's not exactly how I'd chose to describe it, but it's a fair assessment. This actually isn't a problem either. If you like the first portion then you are bound to like the second. I was fond of the writing too. Never twee or coy, it comes right to the point of things without sacrificing emotion or character. It can get away with sentences like, "She announced her age right away, for children consider their ages every bit as important as their names." because they are straightforward and true. Stewart can get stuff across without a bunch of overwrought flowery language. "Their mouths went dry as bones," needs no further explanation. And somehow this text makes the horrific elements of this story all the more frightening. We know that there is a place called The Waiting Room in which children are placed and very bad things happen to them. When we actually learn what the room consists of, it's bad but not as awful as our minds may have lead us to imagine. Stewart works best when he plays off our unspoken fears. A chapter merely called "The Whisperer" shows a chair with arm braces, rivets, and a scary helmet. For the faint of heart the mere suggestion of the chair might frighten them. Nothing is as bad as it seems in this book, though, so maybe it's a good thing that Stewart lightens initial horrors with mundane explanations.
It's very hard to create a protagonist hero that's believably clever and likable. Yet our hero, Reynie, is exactly the kind of kid you want to see in a leader. He impressed me right from the start when, on going to take a test, he sees that a girl has lost the one pencil they were allowed to bring, and merely snaps his in half to help her out. There is comfort to be had too in a hero that is smart enough not to fall for the traps the author has set for him. Constance seems a pain when we meet her, but Reynie is willing to give her the benefit of the doubt when the other characters and even the reader won't. Characters much prefer to feel what their readers are feeling, so I am always impressed when one goes against the grain in a satisfying fashion.
Comparing the books to A Series of Unfortunate Events is inevitable, what with clever kids using their wits to outsmart the buffoons around them. I usually shy away from comparing anything to Snicket's series, if only because I have only the greatest respect for those books, but Stewart does something with "Mysterious Benedict Society" that is worthy of note and similar to Lemony. In "Unfortunate Events" the Baudelaire children eventually have to make some ethical choices that leave them uncertain of whether or not they can be considered "good" any longer. Stewart also takes into consideration the moral implications of placing children in danger, even if it is for the sake of saving the world. If Mr. Benedict is a good man, then how can we approve of him taking a group of kids he hardly knows so as to send them willy-nilly into harm's way? It is comforting to watch Mr. Benedict wrestle with this choice. And when the danger heats up, he even finds a way to try to get the kids away from the school. Much of the book is concerned with making it clear that kids have a right to DO what is right, and pay the consequences for those choices. It's not a message you hear very often.
In terms of the sequel, one person I discussed the book with said of it, "I don't feel I need to go back to that world." I agree, in a way. Stewart wraps up his loose ends nicely. Unlike some series for kids, you aren't left with many holes or gaps in the plot. There is certainly room for a follow-up, but if you don't read it you won't feel you've missed something. The important thing to remember is that clever kids like clever tales. For children who like everything from The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin to The Puzzling World of Winston Breen, by Eric Berlin, this is the book for them. Consistently fun and fine, the book whizzes through its 400+ pages so fast that you'll be shocked at how quickly you find yourself at the end.
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