The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Steward, is about four ordinary kids named Reynie, George (Sticky), Kate, and Constance. The thing that makes these kids special is that they are all very smart and have special abilities. They all take a test from a weird man called Mr. Benedict who recruits them as secret agents. They end up getting a mission to destroy a device called the whisperer, which soothes fears and reads thoughts. They kids have to keep the whisperer from Mr Curtain, the bad guy in the story, who wants to use it to dominate the world.

Unlike the characters in the Harry Potter series, the Mysterious Benedict Society kids can't do magic and they don't have any mystical powers. I did find a lot of other things in common with the Harry Potter series though. This book reminds me of Harry Potter because Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance are all bound together by friendship just like Harry, Ron, and Hermione were. The are all brave and daring. Also, The Mysterious Benedict Society kids don't live with their parents, just like the kids in Harry Potter who live at Hogwarts. Both sets of kids go on all kinds of amazing adventures and have to keep things from getting into the bad guy's hands. All of these kids have to fight against evil in some form and solve mysteries. They also need friendship, loyalty and good leadership to succeed. Even though they are not all orphans, the children have all been left alone by grownups and have to learn to work together and to trust each other to survive.