Trenton Lee Stewart is off to a good start with his new series. The first book in the series was quite entertaining. It was cleverly written and the characters were well developed. There is plenty of material to continue working with to keep the Benedict Society going with the children and the special school continuing to uncover mysteries.
There are many moral lessons in the book. But Stewart doesn't hit the reader over the head too hard with all the important lessons that kids should get from the story. It is about four orphan children who don't seem to fit in well with the average kids in school. They each have special qualities that when they learn to work as a team use the best of each child to solve the problems they face.
They also learn about friendship, being needed and liked for who they are. They learn about family and doing something for someone else. They mostly learn about trust and being apart of something bigger than themselves. But all these lessons are presented in the context of an action story that has suspense and a bit of fear built in. Will the children be able to save the world from the mastermind evil leader who wants to control everyone's minds? Will the children get caught spying or will they have their minds controlled by the evil villain?
Each child has special powers and those characters are very well developed along with their back stories about how they ended up where they are and why they have the area of expertise they have.
I look forward to following this series and seeing where Stewart takes the children next.
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