The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages (Mysterious Benedict Society Series #4)

by Trenton Lee Stewart, Manu Montoya (Artist)

Overview

The brilliant and beloved gang from the New York Times bestselling series is back — and ready to face new threats, dangerous dilemmas, and irresistible adventures.



The Mysterious Benedict Society is a modern classic, drawing comparisons to J.K. Rowling and Roald Dahl, named a Time magazine "Best Young Adult Book of All Time," and selling over three million copies. Some time has passed since the inimitable quartet of Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance have had a mission together. But with the arrival of a new Society member — and a new threat — they must reunite to face dilemmas more dangerous than ever before, including the villainous Mr. Curtain and a telepathic enemy tracking their every move, not to mention a dramatically preteen Constance.


In its triumphant return, the Society encounters all new challenges, but the series' trademark sly humor, sweet camaraderie, hairsbreadth escapes, and mind-bending puzzles are all as engaging as ever. Fans of the series will be thrilled to see the Society has grown up a little with them, while a new generation of readers will fall in love with this irresistible series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316452625
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Series:	Mysterious Benedict Society Series , #4
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	39,763
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	830L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Trenton Lee Stewart is the author of the award-winning and New York Times bestselling Mysterious Benedict Society series and The Secret Keepers. He lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Editorial Reviews

The Mysterious Benedict Society is back! The cast has aged, but the criminal contingency, amped-up action, and derring-do remain the same. Now teenagers, bright-bulb Reynie, intrepid Kate, and Sticky, he of the photographic memory, have the biggest fight ever on their hands. All of the bad guys from previous books (a baker's dozen of them) have returned with revenge on their minds and nefarious plans in their pockets, along with all sorts of instruments of evil. Also in attendance is the ever-contrary Constance Contraire... A welcome return full of the right stuff.—Booklist (Starred Review)

Chases, narrow squeaks, hastily revised stratagems, and heroic exploits that culminate in a characteristically byzantine whirl of climactic twists, triumphs, and revelations... Clever as ever.—Kirkus

From the Publisher

When a beloved book series must change narrators, it can sometimes be disconcerting, but Eric Pollins admirably takes the reigns from the late Del Roy, who narrated the first four books in this series. In Book 5, the members of the Mysterious Benedict Society are older; Reynie, Kate, and Sticky are on the verge of adulthood when they and Constance reunite for a new adventure. A 5-year-old telepath named Tai, voiced with raspy, wide-eyed innocence, joins them to round up Ledroptha Curtain’s 10 dangerous henchmen who have escaped from prison. Pollins imbues Mr. Benedict with gruff warmth, and Curtain’s voice drips with arrogance. This cozy mystery full of puzzles and wordplay begs for the whole family to settle in and listen together. S.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile

2019-04-28
When deadly minions of archvillain Ledroptha Curtain escape from prison, the talented young protégés of his twin brother, Nicholas Benedict, reunite for a new round of desperate ploys and ingenious trickery.

Stewart sets the reunion of cerebral Reynie Muldoon Perumal, hypercapable Kate Wetherall, shy scientific genius George "Sticky" Washington, and spectacularly sullen telepath Constance Contraire a few years after the previous episode, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (2009). Providing relief from the quartet's continual internecine squabbling and self-analysis, he trucks in Tai Li, a grubby, precociously verbal 5-year-old orphan who also happens to be telepathic. (Just to even the playing field a bit, the bad guys get a telepath too.) Series fans will know to be patient in wading through all the angst, arguments, and flurries of significant nose-tapping (occasionally in unison), for when the main action does at long last get under way—the five don't even set out from Mr. Benedict's mansion together until more than halfway through—the Society returns to Nomansan Island (get it?), the site of their first mission, for chases, narrow squeaks, hastily revised stratagems, and heroic exploits that culminate in a characteristically byzantine whirl of climactic twists, triumphs, and revelations. Except for brown-skinned George and olive-complected, presumably Asian-descended Tai, the central cast defaults to white; Reynie's adoptive mother is South Asian.

Clever as ever—if slow off the mark—and positively laden with tics, quirks, and puns. (Fiction. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews