Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007.485.

“When looking in my looking glass I spied a trusted face. Alas, not to be taken for him am I. Beware therefore, the Gemini” (181). This is just one of the conundrums in the book the Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. This is one of my favorite books because it feels like you are going on a journey with the characters.

In a place called Stonetown gifted children have a chance to take a test and, if passed they would receive special opportunities. Only four of the hundreds of children get the special opportunity. Reynie Muldoon an eleven year old boy, Sticky Washington a knowledgeable but nervous boy, Kate Wetheralla a quick and clever girl, and Constance Contraire a stubborn little girl. All of them passed the mind-bending tests for gifted children. What they do not know is that their “special opportunities,” are really missions to help a man called Mr. Benedict defeat his twin Mr. Ledroptha Curtain from controlling the world with radio signals with a machine that can. Will they stop Ledroptha in his tracks, or will they fall short and let him get away with it? The world’s fate is in their hands.

I love how this book describes the challenges the children have to go through, and how they become closer from there experiences. The twists and riddles bend your mind and suck you into the story. The suspense of the story will make you not want to put it down. The author created the characters so perfect for the story, if one of the characters changed, so would the whole book. All of the characters have their own very different personality’s that fit together like a puzzle. I love how the author shows all of the characters emotions and thoughts throughout the story, those parts pull it all together. “Sticky was a notably skinny boy (which Reynie suspected was how he got his nickname-he was thin as a stick) with light brown skin the very color of the tea that Miss. Perumal made each morning. He had big, nervous eyes like a horse’s and, for some odd reason, a perfectly smooth bald head” (Stewart 32). I would recommend this book for people who like conundrums and cleverness. I just love the journey the book takes you through and the description of the characters.