Dangerous missions, creative thinking, teamwork, and

more! The Mysterious Benedict Society is about four

exceptional children carrying out a spy mission to save the

world! Although they risk their lives, they continue to stay

brave, keep calm, and carry on!

Right now, you are probably wondering: where does this

all start? To answer that, it starts in Stonetown, where

Reynie sits in an orphanage with his tutor, Miss Perumal. Miss

Perumal encourages Reynie to try out for Boatwright Academy

by taking a series of tests. Many children try to pass these

tests, but only four children managed to get through them all.

Their names were Reynie, Sticky, Katie, and Constance. So

that is all? Just a book about tests? Of course not! They had

one last exam to carry out that decides the fate of this world.

Many things stood out to me in this book that I liked. To

start, I loved that each character had their work style,

personality, and talents. For example, Katie wanted to work

alone all the time because she was raised that way. Constance

had a good hearing but was very rude. In addition, their

flawless plans being played out were fun to read. Most of the

time, there were many obstacles. But due to their gifted

minds, they found a way to overcome it without much struggle.

Also, I loved the many tense scenes. Although it may not seem

like an action book at first, this one made me keep reading for

way too long. Lastly, I like the inspiration that it can give to

kids. Every kid has different talents and gifts and they can

overcome anything if they put their mind to it! Maybe they or

you could learn to stand out after reading this book. So, all

the things I like about this book are the characters, the

plan-making, tense scenes, and the inspiration it brings.

There weren’t many things I hated about this book. It

was enjoyable in every way. Nevertheless, I still don’t enjoy

some things in this story. To start, I didn’t like how Constance

was excessively rude.

SMALL SPOILER!!! I guess it made sense since she was only 3.

Secondly, I found it hard to care about Mr. Benedict. He was

the leader of this “society”, but he didn’t appear too often

(the only time being when he was first introduced to the

children). Lastly, I hated that the book was super long (485

pages). I don’t enjoy long books because I have a hard time

remembering what happened in the middle. Rereading and

reminding myself what happened gets boring. In summary, the

things I didn’t really like about this book was Constance, Mr.

Benedict, and how long it is.

In conclusion, the things I liked about this book are the

plan-making, tense scenes, and the inspiration. The things I

disliked is Constance, Mr. Benedict, and how long the book

was. I would rate this book from kids 8-16. Although the book

is long, a gifted mind would understand the events throughout

this book. People older than 16 might not care about this book,

but you never know. If I were to give this book a rating, it

would be a 9 out of 10! This was an amazing book to read, and

I hope you have fun too!

Check out the Mysterious Benedict Society from the Newport Beach Public Library!