The Mysterious Benedict Society

Advertisements appear in the newspaper seeking gifted children to take a test and apply for a challenge. Reynie Muldoon decides to try and, despite what he perceives as many failures, is chosen as part of a team to fight evil. Reynie and his new friends pretend to have been selected to attend a school on an island, but the school is actually a cover for a training program for the evil man who wants to control the earth. All the twists and turns in thinking that accompany giftedness are a fun part of this story. I've held off ordering book two as it has a different author; I wonder why.