The Mysterious Benedict Society

I was fishing around for another book to read to the kids and this one had many glowing reviews. They were pretty much hooked from the get-go. In this story four young kids answer an newspaper ad that proclaims “Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?” All four are in various circumstances in which they don't have parents around. There are two boys and two girls and they become secret agents for the kindly Mr. Benedict. Both of my kids (Luke, 9, and Kajsa, 7) would beg me to read more when it came time to wish them a good night. Luke begged to read ahead but I refused since this was our chosen read-aloud book. So, over the course of a month, I read from this nearly every night. They loved it. And at certain passages they would laugh aloud. When I finished it the other night they wanted to know if we could get the next in this series. They said we should read all of them. High praise. Kids would give it 5 stars but I don't hand out 5-star reviews willy-nilly. Nooo.