The Mysterious Benedict Society facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
The Mysterious Benedict Society

Author	Trenton Lee Stewart
Cover artist	Carson Ellis
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	The Mysterious Benedict Society
Genre	Young adult
Publisher	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date	March 7th 2008
Pages	485 pgs
ISBN	978-0-316-05777-6
OCLC	66392644
LC Class	PZ7.S8513 My 2007
Followed by	The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

The Mysterious Benedict Society is an exciting novel for young readers. It was written by Trenton Lee Stewart and illustrated by Carson Ellis. The book first came out in 2007. It tells the story of four very smart children. Their names are Reynie Muldoon, George "Sticky" Washington, Kate Wetherall, and Constance Contraire. They team up to form the "Mysterious Benedict Society." Their mission is to investigate a strange school called L.I.V.E. This stands for the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. A man named Ledroptha Curtain runs the school.

Unraveling the Mystery

The story begins with Reynard "Reynie" Muldoon. He is an orphaned boy living in the Stonetown Orphanage. One morning, his tutor, Miss Perumal, sees an ad in the newspaper. The ad is looking for gifted children. Reynie decides to follow up on it. He takes many difficult puzzles and unusual tests. He passes all of them. This means he qualifies to help a man named Mr. Nicholas Benedict.

Reynie then meets three other special children. They are George "Sticky" Washington, Kate Wetherall, and Constance Contraire. Mr. Benedict is the person who organized these tests. He has helpers named Number Two, Rhonda Kazembe, and Milligan. Milligan is a secret agent who now works as a security guard.

They explain that a strange problem is affecting the world. Secret messages are being sent into people's minds. These messages come through TV and radio signals. They have caused a fake international panic called "The Emergency." Mr. Benedict wants the children to form a team. Their goal is to stop the person sending these messages. The messages are coming from the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, or "L.I.V.E." The children join the Institute as students. They are also spies. They soon find amazing facts that help them on their mission.

Meet the Characters

The Main Team

• Reynard "Reynie" Muldoon is an eleven-year-old boy. He lives at the Stonetown Orphanage. Reynie is very good at solving problems. He is also good at understanding people's feelings. His intelligence leads to him getting a special tutor, Miss Perumal. She later adopts him. Reynie always looks deeper into situations. He tries to find the "puzzle" in everything. He is described as an average-looking boy. He has brown hair and a pale complexion.
• George "Sticky" Washington is also eleven years old. He is bald and has tea-colored skin. Sticky has an amazing memory. Everything "sticks" in his head, which is how he got his nickname. He is also a very fast reader. He can be shy and nervous. When he's stressed, he often polishes his glasses. He ran away from home because his parents pushed him too hard in school contests. He thought they didn't want him anymore.
• Kate Wetherall is a twelve-year-old girl. She is athletic, skilled with her hands, and very strong. Kate is also creative, cheerful, and positive. After becoming an orphan, she ran away to join a circus. She has blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Kate always carries a red bucket. It holds many useful items. These include an army knife, a flashlight, and a rope. She also has a slingshot and a spyglass. Kate's mother died when she was a baby. She believed her father left her because of her mother's death. She likes to call herself "the Great Kate Weather Machine."
• Constance Contraire is a small, very smart, and stubborn girl. She can write clever and sometimes harsh poems. Her mind is very sensitive. This makes her most affected by the Whisperer device. By the end of the book, she becomes Mr. Benedict's adopted daughter. She also reveals that she is only 3 years old.
• Milligan is a former government agent. He now works as a guard for the children and Mr. Benedict's team. He is often sad and serious. People describe him as looking like a "scarecrow." This is because he seems shabby and gloomy. His sadness comes from being kidnapped by secret agents. They brainwashed him, and he lost his memory. He wasn't sure of his real name. "Milligan" was the first word he remembered. He later gets his memory back. He discovers he is Kate's father. Milligan has light blonde hair and ocean blue eyes.
• Mr. Nicholas Benedict is a middle-aged man. He is the one who brings the children together. He found out about the plans of his identical twin brother, Ledroptha Curtain. They were separated at birth because their parents had died. Mr. Benedict has narcolepsy. This means he falls asleep when he feels strong emotions, usually laughter.
• Ledroptha Curtain is the main bad guy in the story. He is the head of the "Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened," or L.I.V.E. He created "The Emergency." This is his way of causing widespread panic. He wants to make governments around the world unstable. Mr. Curtain invented a mind-control device called "the Whisperer." It uses children's minds to spread messages through television. His plan is to take control of the entire world. He wants to be called "Minister And Secretary of all the Earth's Regions" (M.A.S.T.E.R.). He is also Mr. Benedict's long-lost twin brother. He uses a special wheelchair to move around. He wears mirrored sunglasses to hide his narcolepsy. Mr. Curtain's narcolepsy is triggered by anger, which is the opposite of his twin.

Other Important Characters

• S.Q. Pedalian works for Mr. Curtain. He is not very smart and is clumsy. But he is the only executive who is kind to the Mysterious Benedict Society. He doesn't seem to realize how bad Mr. Curtain and the Whisperer's effects are.
• Jackson and Jillson are the head executives at the Institute. They are known for being unkind. Jackson has cold blue eyes and a strong build. Jillson is tall with small eyes and long arms.
• Martina Crowe starts as a messenger and later becomes an executive. She dislikes the Mysterious Benedict Society members. She feels threatened by how smart they are. She especially dislikes Kate.
• Miss Perumal is Reynie's tutor. She is from India. She is smart and friendly. She eventually adopts Reynie.
• Mr. Rutger is the director of the Stonetown Orphanage. He is not mean, but he is greedy. He doesn't see Reynie's need for a better education. He gets paid for each student. So he doesn't want Reynie to leave for an advanced school.
• The Helpers cook, do laundry, and do other tasks at the Institute. They are not allowed to talk to students. They also cannot make eye contact. They look sad and empty, like Milligan. Reynie soon finds out that the Helpers might have been forced to come to the Institute. They may have been brainwashed.
• The Recruiters kidnap children for the Institute. These children are used for Mr. Curtain's Whisperer messages. In later books, they become known as the Ten Men. They are called this because they have ten ways of hurting people.
• Number Two and Rhonda Kazembe are Mr. Benedict's very protective assistants. They have passed all his tests. They do everything he asks them to do. Rhonda is a woman from Zambia. She is in her twenties but is short enough to look like a 12-year-old. Number Two often looks like a pencil when she wears her yellow coat. She has yellow skin and red hair.

Awards and Recognition

The Mysterious Benedict Society was a New York Times bestseller in 2008. It won several awards. These include:

• A 2007 Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth award.
• A 2008 Notable Children's Book for Middle Readers award from the American Library Association.
• The 2008 E.B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers.
• A 2008 Texas Lone Star Reading List award.

More Adventures: The Series

This book is part of a series. Three sequels were published:

• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (2008)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (2009)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages (2019)

A prequel book was also released. It tells the story before the first book. It is called The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict. It came out on April 10, 2012.

There is also a fun extra book. It is called The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict's Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums.