Rose Rosetree’s Reviews > The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages > Status Update

Goodreaders, I'm nearly done with this book. And I've had it.

An excellent, highly original book is here. But it's overlong and maybe self-indulgent about the "genius" of the pack of children who are defending humanity... not just a saga of good against evil, but maybe saving the world.

The author, Trenton, showed unusual courage in showing Constance and Thai, at different times, to act in ways that were extremely unlikeable--at least to this reader.

It has been fascinating to me, comparing this novel with other novels where a villain might cause problems for a while, but this played itself out in a relatively small number of chapters.

Now, Constance is the one to act up. Talking with the older kids, she makes some valid points. Undoubtedly, she's talented.

Yet she's continually reading minds, which made her insistence on being accorded more power within the group? A squirmy proposition to this reader.

Those spunky kids, parachuting and digging up a weird kind of groundcover, and otherwise showing one kind of ingenuity after another.

Suspense is growing. The good guys have to win.

Oh dear, I'm starting to find precious 5-year-old Thai to be spoiled and annoying.

Wouldn't any of the older members the family teach him some manners?

And honestly! Can't anybody stop him from eating great quantities of sugar at every opportunity?

Reading this story is like hanging out with intellectually gifted, caring people. Puns and rhymes are a feature, not a bug.

One character is known as "SQ." A section within one chapter is entitled:

"To Rescue SQ."

And the wily team members succeed at just that.

The puns zing through the stories. So do the references to reading people's thoughts.

Although I have no interest in doing that, it's as close as I get (as a reader) to finding characters who have good skills for co-creating with the Divine for energetic literacy. Ah! So satisfying to have all that literary company!

It's such a delight, toggling between the precocious intellects and well-developed talents of characters who are mostly children.

The dialogs are a delight.

What a treat, having children own the serious adult responsibilities. While older and younger members of the extended family treat each other with heartfelt respect.