{"id":3911,"date":"2017-06-16T08:20:01","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T12:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=3911"},"modified":"2025-03-06T09:07:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T14:07:19","slug":"book-review-the-mysterious-benedict-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=3911","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Mysterious Benedict Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know how sometimes you encounter a book quite by chance, and it kind of knocks your socks off? When I worked at a little local used bookstore, someone brought in this book to exchange, and\u00a0the quirky illustration and title made me decide it needed me.<\/p>\n

The story starts out simply enough, with Reggie answering a newspaper ad for gifted children looking for special opportunities. But he is quickly drawn into a plot much bigger than himself, and is placed on a team with three other children who have special talents such as physical dexterity, photographic memory, and stubbornness (!). They are sent on an extremely dangerous and difficult mission to defeat Mr Curtain, who is trying to take over the world by his telepathic machine, the Whisperer, which brainwashes people without their knowledge. Since Mr Curtain works out of a boarding school, only children can spy on him without suspicion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The story is riveting, and I found myself staying in my car when I arrived at a friend’s house to read just a little longer and a little longer before I joined the party I had come for. Although it’s full of mystery and danger, the story telling isn’t dark, but rather catchy and funny, and a tiny bit scary in parts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mysterious Benedict Society comes in a set<\/a> of four books (three of which are pictured above), which follows the children through many heroic and death-defying adventures. The first book can be found used for a few dollars here<\/a>, if you want to try it out before getting the whole set. It’s the perfect fun read for an eight to thirty-eight year-old.<\/p>\n

However. Take this book on a vacation at your own risk. If you spend the whole vacation tucked in a corner engrossed in your reading instead of socializing, and all your friends want to yell at me for recommending this book, don’t say I didn’t warn you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know how sometimes you encounter a book quite by chance, and it kind of knocks your socks off? When I worked at a little local used bookstore, someone brought in this book to exchange, and\u00a0the quirky illustration and title made me decide it needed me. The story starts out simply enough, with Reggie answering a newspaper ad for gifted children looking for special opportunities. But he is quickly drawn into a plot much bigger than himself, and is placed…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83],"tags":[95,105,217],"class_list":["post-3911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-adventures","tag-book-reviews","tag-kids-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/img_0880.jpg?fit=4032%2C3024","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8A8kG-115","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5831,"url":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=5831","url_meta":{"origin":3911,"position":0},"title":"Day 5: He Was One of Us","author":"Rachel","date":"February 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend of mine gave me this book one year for my birthday, and I have to say, it is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. Although it is laid out like a child's book, and would probably appeal to children as well, it is rather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2666.jpg?fit=1200%2C876&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2666.jpg?fit=1200%2C876&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2666.jpg?fit=1200%2C876&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2666.jpg?fit=1200%2C876&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2666.jpg?fit=1200%2C876&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5805,"url":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=5805","url_meta":{"origin":3911,"position":1},"title":"Day 2: Food Memoirs","author":"Rachel","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When we lived in Honduras, Melissa and I would spend hours perusing cookbooks and drooling over all the recipes we didn\u2019t have the ingredients to make. 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To the best of my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/img_2663.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7110,"url":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=7110","url_meta":{"origin":3911,"position":2},"title":"Let’s Talk Books","author":"Rachel","date":"January 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my goals for 2018 was to read or get rid of all the unread books in my library, with the exception of a couple reference books, and a wee French book I have, because je ne parle pas francais. 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After finishing it I had to storm into the hallway and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8387,"url":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?p=8387","url_meta":{"origin":3911,"position":5},"title":"How to Become a Reader","author":"Rachel","date":"April 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It is not uncommon for me to stumble across conversations where I hear people remark sadly, \"I wish I were a reader.\" Well, as someone who is a reader, although of a lesser variety than some hardy folks, I am happy to offer a few tips to go from non-reader\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/?cat=83"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/DSCF3445-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/DSCF3445-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/DSCF3445-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/DSCF3445-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/DSCF3445-scaled.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3911"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8772,"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions\/8772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stripedpineapple.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}