The Mysterious Benedict Society

Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society is a clever, warm puzzle adventure for 9 year olds that begins with a newspaper advert asking, "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?"

What happens

Reynie Muldoon is eleven and lives at Stonetown Orphanage. He's already worked through every textbook they have, so he spends his days with a tutor, Miss Perumal, who teaches him Tamil over breakfast. The other children think he's an oddball. He's starting to think they might be right.

The test turns out to be very strange indeed. Does he like watching television? Is a certain chess position possible? And the very last question asks, "Are you brave?" Reynie honestly doesn't know, so he writes "I hope so." (What a lovely answer that is.)

Then comes a second test that looks impossible. Forty questions about things nobody could possibly know. Children burst into tears, and one boy wails so loudly he's asked to leave (he's very relieved). Can your reader spot the trick before Reynie does? It's hiding in plain sight.

Along the way he meets the other children who get through. Sticky Washington remembers every word he's ever read and polishes his glasses whenever he's nervous, which is often. Kate Wetherall carries a red bucket and has a grip that feels like catching your fingers in a drawer.

The pleasure of it is being inside Reynie's head while he works things out. He turns down a chance to cheat, frets about Miss Perumal worrying about him, and notices when grown-ups aren't telling him the whole truth. If you've got a reader who loves a riddle and is a bit of a puzzle themselves, this will feel like it was written for them.

The opening chapters are all tests and puzzles, so a child who wants a sword fight on page one might need a little patience. A child who likes thinking things through will be hooked straight away.

What to read next

If they'd like another orphan with a gift nobody's spotted yet, try Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism. Molly lives at a crumbling orphanage called Hardwick House, where the woman in charge measures the bathwater with a tape measure.