Are You A Gifted Child Looking For Special Opportunitities?

A few weeks ago, Ms. Cottage Way Of Life was browsing around the book store when all at once, she spotted a book she felt she must have, based solely on the cover's art work. The book's title was a little intriguing too, The Mysterious Benedict Society.

She bought it, read it in a flash, and then kept pestering me to read it as well. But ... I was otherwise occupied with Mary Mrs. A. Lincoln and just didn't want to leave Mary and Abe (Historical fiction wherein Mary Todd Lincoln's story is told in the first person when she was an inmate in a lunatic asylum).

But Ms. Cottage Way Of Life kept on with her pestering, "You will like this book, I swear. It has mystery. It has kids who are quirky, who'd rather read than watch television. You will like this book. Really. You need to read it. Then we can talk about it. It's a kid's book. It won't take that long to read. You will like this book, I swear."

Finally I acquiesced.

I could read a little bit and see if it was worth my time. I like reading kid's books from time to time. Harry Potter was good.

The cover of the Mysterious Benedict Society was intriguing, I had to admit. Okay ... I could leave Mary Todd for a while. She was arguing with her son at the moment and that was tiresome as he is a bit of a bore and just doesn't understand the value of owning all kinds of "stuff". Mary, you see, wanted out of the lunatic asylum and he just couldn't understand it, being convinced of her insanity by her spendthrift ways.

So that's how I met Reynard Muldoon, Reynie, for short. The lad reads an advertisement in the newspaper one day, "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?" Since Reynie is a gifted child, said ad leads him to a mysterious test ... a test wherein he meets a few other gifted children, Stickie, Kate, and Constance.

Along the vein of Harry Potter, Reynie is an orphan and he and the other kiddies, once they pass the test, must do battle with an evil villain ... Ledroptha Curtain, inventor of the insidious, Whisperer.

Ms. Cottage Way Of Life was right.

The book is clever and fun, and I could not put it down.

No matter that it was meant for the kiddies to read ... I loved it, ripped through it, and quickly bought the second Mysterious Benedict Society book, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, which I am currently in the middle of reading. I don't want to finish this one too fast though. I like hanging out with Reynie & company (I have decided that my dog, Coco, should be renamed Constance, as she is very like the littlest member of the Mysterious Benedict Society, the character Constance Contraire - small, obstinate, frequently annoying, and every now and then, quite brilliant and possibly even endearing).

To read a book on a lazy summer day is a most cherished activity. I love it, don't you?

I only wish there was a summer reading program for adults as there is for the kiddies. I remember those summers at the library with such fondness.

Ahhh, to read ten books and be rewarded with a cool pencil, once again. One can only wish.

The kiddies get all the good stuff. :-)