Rating: 4/5
Reynard Muldoon, Kate Wetherall, Sticky Washington and Constance Contraire all take part in an extremely important test, along with many other “abnormally gifted” children. But they are the only ones who get through, and when they do, in perfectly different ways.
Reynie found the puzzle in the questions.
Sticky knew all the answers without knowing that there was a puzzle.
Kate found some way with her “bucket of uses” to help her along.
And Constance decided to have a picnic.
Whatever their preferred ways of winning, though, Mr Nicholas Benedict — the creator of the test — saw the talents and love of truth in all of them, and along with the help of his recruits, Rhonda Kazembe and Number Two, brought them to him and asked them to take part in an extremely dangerous mission.
The children saw the warmth and good will in Mr Benedict, and although it took Kate but two seconds (to say the word “yes”; not to think about it), the others hesitated for a little longer. But poor Mr Nicholas seemed so distraught that they might not wish to help him that the children could not bare the sight of his sadness. They all agreed, and, with the name The Mysterious Benedict Society, they are sent to an Institute on Nomansan Island.
All the way through Sticky’s nervousness, Constance’s stubbornness, Reynie’s anxiety and Kate’s excitement, Mr Ledroptha Curtain, Mr Benedict’s twin brother, is attempting to brainsweep the world through the meaning of message broadcasts. ‘It will make the whole world happier!’ Mr Curtain explains.
But what he writes in his journal contradicts that in every aspect.