Trenton Lee Stewart: The Mysterious Benedict Society (Little, Brown and Company 2007)
Reynie Muldoon is monotonously living his not-so-fun life at the Stonetown Orphanage, where (unfortunately) he is the smartest child. His only friend is the teacher assigned to him, Miss Perumal, who, even if she cannot teach him anything new, at least understands and supports him. She is the one who sees a newspaper article that will change Reynie’s life. In this, talented children are offered a special opportunity. Reynie uses his wisdom to complete the trials. He’s not the only one who manages to pass the challenges: Sticky memorizes everything he’s ever seen, wild Kate is afraid of nothing, and Constance… well, she’s Conscance. The sender of the advertisement, Mr. Benedict, entrusts them with a dangerous mission that will require all their knowledge.
The story is a classic children’s book: good and evil, and saving the world, which is in the hands of children. However, it is not that simple. The children and the readers of the story only know that something very bad is going to happen, but what it is they have to figure out. Meanwhile, we can see the events from Reynie’s and the others’ point of view. The story implicitly criticizes the school system, but its main point is the meaning of family and togetherness.
Trenton Lee Stuart was born in Arkansas, one of the southern states of the USA, and still lives there with his family. At the university, he studied English literature and writing and wrote all the while. The idea for the Mysterious Benedict Society came to him on the way, when he was thinking about a chess puzzle. After its publication in 2007, the book immediately entered the New York Times bestseller list. The series has a total of 6 volumes, 3 of which were published in Hungarian, and a series was recently adapted to film for Disney+. I’ll definitely check it out, but I wanted to read the book first!
