It’s awesome to see a crew who reacts to misunderstandings by assuming the best of their friends, not the worst. There are as many riddles and hijinks as ever, and the four protagonists make as good a team as ever, despite some minor misunderstandings. The characters are just as worried as the reader about how growing up will change things, and the result is-like growing up itself-bittersweet. It affects the group dynamics and each character’s personal journey. In fact, I think that Reynie and the others’ growing pains is actually the most effective storyline. These are the same characters as before, just a little older. It is a little jarring that Kate doesn’t always carry her bucket around and that Sticky now wants to be called “George,” but these are little changes in service to a larger theme and as a whole the feel of the book is the same. There’s always a worry with childhood favorites, because what if they’re not as great as you remember? The Mysterious Benedict Society is, and when I saw how much things had been shaken up for book four, I was afraid. I love these books, and only recently reread the first one and found to my delight that it holds up especially well even though I’m older and it was published more than a decade ago. I’ll admit something upfront: when I opened this book up and realized that ¾ of the Mysterious Benedict Society are now in their late teens and that there is now a fifth member of the Society, I was deeply skeptical. Curtain’s dangerous Ten Men loose, and poor Constance is plagued by another psychic-called the Listener-whose presence in her mind forces her to be constantly on edge. But things are slightly more complicated than that, because of course they are. Change is awkward, and it’s especially difficult to know how to move about in a world you’ve saved on more than one occasion. Now they’re young adults (well, not Constance, not yet) who are trying to figure out what that means. Benedict by going undercover at the Living Institute for the Very Enlightened.

It’s been years since Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance helped Mr. I thought the series was done, and I was happy to be wrong. More people need to read this series! I had absolutely no idea that Riddle of Ages was coming out this year or even that it was coming out ever. It’s supposedly a bestseller, but I very rarely run into other people who’ve read it, which is deeply upsetting. It’s full of clever puzzles, brilliant characters, silly moments, and exciting action. A random bookseller recommended it to me forever ago, and I’m incredibly grateful to her because it is an absolutely delightful read. The Mysterious Benedict Societyby Trenton Lee Stewart is one of the best books for young readers that I’ve ever read.

The mysterious benedict society book