The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart

From chapter one, this book had me hooked! I finished the entire 485 page novel in three days. The book starts by introducing you to one of the main characters, Reynard Muldoon, (otherwise known as Reynie.) Reynie is an extraordinarily gifted eleven-year-old orphan, a true genius. He feels out-of-place at the orphanage where he is teased relentlessly by the other kids. 

A chain of curious events leads him to meet a brilliant man named Mr. Benedict. Mr. Benedict has discovered that an evil scientist has figured out how to manipulate the minds of people through television and radio waves and to make them believe anything he wants them to. Only the minds of extremely truth-loving people like Reynie have the gumption to resist. Reynie and three other amazingly talented kids who meet through Mr. Benedict gang up together to put a stop to the evil scientist's schemes. They call themselves, "The Mysterious Benedict Society." 

What the four kids of The Mysterious Benedict Society discover is a situation much too enormous for any one of them to defeat individually. The theme of the book is that only by banding together will they be strong enough to defeat the evil scientist and his equally evil plans. Where one kid's talents are lacking, another member of the society is able to contribute his own. All together, they make quite a remarkable group of kids who have personalities that are described so vividly it makes you forget they are merely fictional characters and causes you to half-believe they are real people. 

Story Starters

• Make up a story in which a group of people have to band together to face a problem. Illutstrate the truth of the old saying, "Two heads are better then one."
• Make the characters of any story you write so very life-like in their personalities and other traits that your readers become almost as attached to them as if they were real people.