An Old Fashioned Adventure for Children - "The Mysterious Benedict Society"

“Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?”

This newspaper headline appears in the first few pages of the The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, the first book in one of my 12 year old son’s favourite series in the last 18 months. The series is laden with adventure, challenges and humour, in the way I remember from the books in my past. The stories feature four “gifted” children, although other than 11 year old Reynie, I’m not sure that his new friends, Kate, Sticky and Constance match today’s definition of gifted, as each are highly skilled in unique ways. Without spoiling the plot, the four children are recruited by Mr Benedict to help him to stop the evil Mr. Curtain, whose plan is to use children to take over the world. By infiltrating Mr. Curtain’s training school, the children use their unique skills to uncover the mysteries surrounding the school – eventually finding that as a team they are more effective than working alone, as their skills enhance those of the others.

My son kept telling me that I had to read the first book, he was so excited by it – so I did. While obviously written for the able upper primary reader (the book is quite long for this age group), the many adventures, puzzles that the children have to work out, and daring exploits were enough to keep me reading. I can see why my son loved this book and the rest of the series. It is very different from a lot of the other books aimed at this age group. It is not fantasy/science fiction which I think has been overdone for boys. It is an adventure that children of this age can relate to, featuring children who act like children, with many of the, now, old fashioned values of classic series such asThe Secret Seven or Famous Five books by Enid Blyton. There is no graphic violence, drugs or children dressing and acting as little adults. The relationships between the children are those of friends, not the potential boyfriend/girlfriend themes that is so strong in the media and other books for the “preens” age groups. It is just good fun stuff.

Some children in the target audience may feel that it is too young for them as they have read Robert Muchamore’s Cherub series, for example, the latter books of which is aimed at a much older age group. This makes me sad. Somewhere along the way of playstations and X-boxes our children have lost the simplicity in their lives. If you have a more sensitive soul like I do, then The Mysterious Benedict Society books may be their thing.

(The books are hard to get in Melbourne - try the Readings chain of bookstores for which is above)