The Mysterious Benedict Society is a novel written by Trenton Lee Stewart and illustrated by Diana Sudyka, first published in 2007. It tells the story of four gifted children: Reynie Muldoon, George "Sticky" Washington, Kate Wetherall, and Constance Contraire, who all are formed into the "Mysterious Benedict Society" and are sent to investigate a facility called L.I.V.E. (the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened), run by the brilliant but evil Ledroptha Curtain.
Video The Mysterious Benedict Society
Plot summary
Reynard "Reynie" (Also knowns as the authors son) Muldoon is an orphan living in the fictional city of Stonetown. Since he was young, he has demonstrated incredible creative-thinking skills and a great love for books, which results in him being isolated and teased at by the other orphans living in the same orphanage as him. His only comfort and company is Miss Perumal, his private tutor from India, whom he often shares the morning newspaper with. On a fateful day, the two notice an advertisement in the newspaper directed to "gifted children looking for special opportunities", prompting Reynie to take the test, which consists of many strange rounds of vigorous selection. In the process of testing, Reynie befriends George "Sticky" Washington, a timid boy with a photographic memory of words, and Kate Wetherall, a resourceful girl with tremendous physical ability and an odd habit of carrying around her things in a belted bucket. Finally, they meet Constance Contraire, a diminutive girl with a very defiant personality and a gift for wit, especially considering her minuscule size, as well as Mr. Benedict, the main devisor of the tests. Along with his two subordinates Number Two and Rhonda Kazembe, Mr. Benedict explains to the four children about a secret threat plaguing the world in the form of cryptic messages being broadcast into people's minds via television and radio. These messages, while infrequent, have been transmitted over the past few years and have aroused a sort of alarm and panic in people that they deem "the Emergency", which is in fact just an illusion by the Sender of the messages. Mr. Benedict has managed to locate the signals' source at Nomansan Island off the coast of Stonetown Harbour, in a school known as the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, and narrow down the Sender to the principal and founder of the school, Ledroptha Curtain. Needing evidence for his findings, Mr. Benedict enlists the four children to become his secret agents and infiltrate the Institute. With some hesitation, the four children eventually agree to become a team and name themselves "The Mysterious Benedict Society".
Upon infiltrating the Institute, the four children shockingly discover Mr. Curtain to be Mr. Benedict's long-lost twin brother due to their identical appearance and similar problem of narcolepsy. They also find the Institute to be an organisation that relies on illusions like the Emergency, ranging from its "lack of rules" to the curriculum taught, which is nonsensical and can only be mastered by memorisation. Becoming students at the school, the four children also discover a hierarchy of Executives, older students who run the Institute, Messengers, slightly younger students with "special privileges", "special recruit" students who have been kidnapped but have no recollection of their abduction, Helpers, mind wiped adults who mindlessly work at the Institute, and Recruiters, the kidnappers and guards of the Institute. During their time in the school, the four children devise plans to learn as much information as possible, including hacking into Mr. Curtain's journal and secret room before reporting it all to Mr. Benedict, Rhonda, Number Two, and their bodyguard Milligan via Morse code, who are all stationed in a forest across the sea from the Institute. Deducing that the Messengers are the ones that help Mr. Curtain with his message broadcasts, Reynie and Sticky, with their thinking-out-of-the-box skills and prodigious memory respectively, ace lessons and become Messengers.
Through espionage, they discover that Mr. Curtain exerts much of his power through a device known as the Whisperer that interfaces directly with the brain. Helpers are government agents who were "brainswept" (given total amnesia) and the "special recruits" were given lacunar amnesia in order to forget their kidnappings. The four children find out Mr. Curtain's goal to use his Whisperer to soothe the fear of the Emergency and as such, gain control of the people and subsequently the world. Reynie and Sticky also learn first-hand about the effect the Whisperer has on themselves in soothing their worst fears, in return for their cooperation of transmitting messages that ride on their thoughts and lesson material. Comforted by these euphoric sessions from the stress of the mission, the two boys are briefly tempted to join Mr. Curtain. Things take a turn for the worst when Mr. Curtain suddenly starts boosting the power of his messages, causing Constance to hear the messages in her head, and when Reynie and Sticky are chosen to be the last Messengers to transmit signals before those signals no longer need to ride on children's thoughts any longer as he is nearing total domination.
While the two boys buy time by resisting the allures of the Whisperer, Kate hauls Constance up to the room with the boys and battles the Executives that come after her. Sudden realisation hits Mr. Curtain, who sentences The Mysterious Benedict Society to brainsweeping. Just as the Whisperer becomes too strong for the boys to handle, Constance lessens the impact by triggering intense feelings of anger to double her resistance to the machine. Reynie figures out how anger causes Mr. Curtain's narcolepsy to activate and lets Mr. Benedict into the Institute, allowing him to destroy the Whisperer with his similar mindsets to his twin brother, stopping the signals and Mr. Curtain's empire.
Returning to Stonetown, the four children who had previously no parents or had been estranged from them, find their own families. Miss Perumal decides to adopt Reynie, Kate finds out Milligan is actually her father who was brainswept, Sticky reunites with his parents, and Mr. Benedict agrees to adopt Constance, revealing her to only be a three-year-old toddler, explaining her crankiness and minuscule size. The story ends as the children have a snowball fight among one another, with Mr. Benedict laughing himself to sleep.
Maps The Mysterious Benedict Society
Characters
Main characters
- Reynard "Reynie" Muldoon is an eleven-year-old boy living at Stonetown Orphanage. He is amazingly talented at problem solving, logical deduction, and reading people's emotions, and his intelligence resulted in the assignment of a special tutor at the orphanage, Miss Perumal. Reynie looks between the lines, observing and questioning, and solves most problems by looking for a "puzzle" within the situation. He is described as an especially average-looking boy with average brown hair, average pale complexion, and average clothes.
- George "Sticky" Washington, an eleven-year old tea-skinned boy with no hair (caused by self-application of hair remover). He has great memory (everything "sticks" in his head, hence his nickname) and a talent for reading quickly. He is, however, timid and nervous and resorts to polishing his glasses in stressful situations. He ran away from his parents because they forced him into academic competitions and because he thought they no longer wanted him around.
- Kate "Katie Cat" or "The Great Kate Weather Machine" Wetherall is a twelve-year-old girl who is sporty, possessing speed, dexterity, strength, and stamina. After being orphaned, she ran away to the circus. She has blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. She carries a red bucket containing various items which she thinks are useful, including an army knife, a black flashlight, a pen, a rope, a bag of marbles, a slingshot, a spool of clear fishing twine, a horseshoe magnet and a spyglass disguised as a kaleidoscope. She is very cheerful and optimistic. Kate's mother died when she was a baby, and believes her father left her (when she was young) because of her mother's tragic death.
- Constance "Connie Girl" Contraire is a small, extremely intelligent, stubborn and often annoying girl. She has the ability to write clever and brutal poems, and her ultra-sensitive mind is also the most severely affected by the hidden messages transmitted by the Whisperer. Reynie, Sticky and Kate find Constance to be stubborn, petulant and often immature. At the end of the book, it is revealed that she is almost three years old, which explains her behavior. Also, at the end of the book, Mr. Benedict offers to adopt her.
- Mr. Nicholas Benedict is the guiding force behind and recruiter of The Mysterious Benedict Society. He is the only one who can stop Mr. Curtain's plans to use the Whisperer to take over the world. He has narcolepsy, like his twin Ledroptha Curtain, which is triggered by strong emotional feelings. Although it is necessary to stop Mr. Curtain's plans, he is very reluctant to let the children go into dangerous situations. A Morse Code sequence appears either on the inside of the book jacket underneath the author's name (hardcover) or on the back cover of the book underneath the plot description (paperback) which reveals Mr. Benedict's first name.
- 'Number Two' is Mr. Benedict's chief assistant. She is always referred to by her code name due to her dislike of her given name, Pencilla. She is said to have a 'pencil-like' appearance complete with a yellow complexion, rusty red hair, and yellow clothes. She passed Mr. Benedict's tests several years ago, and at the end of the book is revealed to be Mr. Benedict's adopted daughter. She suffers from insomnia which allows her to do a great amount of work, but leaves her with a tremendous appetite. She continually watches Mr. Benedict in case he suddenly falls asleep due to his narcolepsy.
- Rhonda Kazembe is also a former student and current assistant to Mr. Benedict. She is very small, giving her the ability to pose as a student during Mr. Benedict's tests of other prospective students. Like Number Two, she also tries to watch for Mr. Benedict's narcolepsy attacks. She grew up in Zambia and was brought to the United States as a child. She is also Mr. Benedict's adopted daughter.
- Milligan is a former government agent and current guard for the children, Rhonda, Number Two, and Mr. Benedict. He is a sad and somber man, even described as a "scarecrow" owing to his shabby and depressing demeanor. His sadness is attributed to his kidnapping by secret agents after which he lost his memory. He woke up one day and was told that he had received a blow to the head, damaging his memory. Although unsure of his actual name, "Milligan" seems to be a familiar name/word to him. He later recovers his memory and discovers he is Kate's father. Milligan also has flax blond hair and ocean blue eyes.
- Ledroptha Curtain is the antagonist of the story and the head of L.I.V.E. - the "Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened". Mr. Curtain created the mind-control device called "the Whisperer" as part of a scheme to control the world and be declared "Minister And Secretary of all the Earth's Regions" (M.A.S.T.E.R.). He is also revealed to be Mr. Benedict's long lost twin brother. He uses a modified wheelchair to get around and wears mirrored sunglasses, in order to deal with and hide his narcolepsy, a condition he shares with his brother. Mr. Curtain's narcolepsy is triggered by anger, which saves the children.
Supporting characters
- S.Q. Pedalian is an Executive working for Mr. Curtain. He is dim-witted and clumsy, but is the only Executive who is kind to the Mysterious Benedict Society. He is also somewhat oblivious to the evils of Mr. Curtain, the Institute, and the Whisperer's effects on the world's inhabitants. His feet are an enormous size fifteen, causing Kate to joke that S.Q. is short for "Sasquatch."
- Jackson and Jillson are the Head Executives at the Institute and are noted for their unkind ways. Jackson has icy blue eyes, is stockily built, and has a nose long and sharp like a knife. Jillson is six feet tall, has small piggy eyes, and 'arms like a gorilla'.
- Martina Crowe is originally a Messenger and later Executive at the Institute. She despises the members of the Mysterious Benedict Society because she feels threatened by their intelligence, but holds particular enmity for Kate.
- Miss Perumal is Reynie's tutor, of Indian extraction, and is intelligent and friendly. She eventually adopts Reynie in the end.
- Mr. Rutger is the Stonetown Orphanage director. Although not unkind, he is blinded by greed to Reynie's obvious higher educational needs. He gets paid for each student so he doesn't let Reynie go to an advanced school.
- The Helpers make food, do laundry, and perform the many mundane and manual labor tasks that help keep the Institute running. They are not allowed to talk to any students at L.I.V.E. or make eye contact. They share the same vacant, sad expressions as Milligan and Reynie soon discovers that the Helpers may have been brought to the Institute against their wills.
- The Recruiters go around kidnapping children for the Institute, to be used for Mr Curtain's messages. In the following books The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma".
Antagonists
- Mr. Curtain is the primary antagonist. His plan is to use the Whisperer to take over the world. He is the identical twin brother to Mr. Benedict.
- The Ten Men are men hired by Mr. Curtain to do his dirty work, such as shocking/electrocuting people with their silver watches and knocking people out with ties filled with noxious gas.
Critical reception
The Mysterious Benedict Society has received generally positive reviews. Many of the critics praised the enigmatic plot and puzzles included in the storyline; Michele Norris, writing for the Guardian, said, "Almost everything inside this book is an enigma." Additionally, the ethical decisions and moral lessons contained within the book were praised. Kirkus Review said that the book was "rich in moral and ethical issues."
Awards
The Mysterious Benedict Society was a New York Times bestseller in 2007 and won the Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth award in 2007, the Notable Children's Books award in 2008, and the Texas Lone Star Books award in August 2013.
Sequels
Two sequels (the second and third books in the series) were published in 2008 and 2009: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma.
A prequel, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, was released on April 10, 2012.
See also
- The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
- The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma
- The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict
References
External links
- An interview with the author, Trenton Lee Stewart
- The official website for The Mysterious Benedict Society
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments