The Mysterious Benedict Society |  | Author: Trenton Lee Stewart
Creator: Carson Ellis
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $3.63
as of 11/21/2009 15:32 CST details
You Save: $3.36 (48%)
New (62) Used (45) Collectible (2) from $2.11
Seller: a1books
Rating:  181 reviews
Sales Rank: 271
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Pages: 512
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0316003956
EAN: 9780316003957
ASIN: 0316003956
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 181
 The Mysterious Benidict Society November 13, 2009
A delightful book full of exitement, friendship,
and mystery.Sure to enthrall many a yong reader.
*Fantastic* Book About Friendships And Extended Families! November 9, 2009
Alex Honda (Los Angeles, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
The Mysterious Benedict Society is a GREAT read - even for adults October 26, 2009
Evelyn E. Jones
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a terrific mystery! It's also a great book to read out loud to kids. It kept my two kids (age 8 and 10) and myself on the edge of our seats. This author really knows how to hook an audience (and I'm a tough one to hook). There were many unexpected twists and turns that made it difficult to predict what would happen next. The main characters are nice, likeable kids (unlike stories where kids come off as brats, or adults as idiots) that undertake a grand adventure to save humanity. Great character development as well. Along the way characters struggle with their internal desires to just take the easy way out, to sacrifice the good of the whole for their own comfort. I could not think of a way to improve this story. It's a nice change from the dragon/magic-filled fantasy genre. My older daughter thought it was better then Harry Potter (the books). I have already gifted this book to one of the teachers at her school, and am just looking for excuses to buy and give away a dozen more.
one of the most amazing books i have ever read
Redwave88 October 21, 2009
this is an amazing book i think every kid should read. It is absolutely magnificent and one of my very very very very very..... etc.etc.etc. books in the whole wide world.
 A good start but.... October 20, 2009
Neale Blackwood (PERTH, WA Australia)
This started so well but the middle and ending were a huge disappointment. I thought at last a good kids story set in the real world, but the story lost its way and the plot was cumbersome.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 181
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