The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
by Trenton Lee Stewart
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Book Summary Information
Author: Trenton Lee StewartBrand: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Illustrator: Diana Sudyka
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-05-01
ISBN: 0316036730
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780316036733
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
Book Review: endless stereotypes
Summary: 1 Stars
I am an avid reader of good childrens books - one reason among many others being that I want to check before hand what I give my children to read. If the book has passed according to my criteria, we then read it to each other in turns. I thought the first book was about OK. It had some original ideas concerning tests and being tested, and the charcters of Kate, Charlotte, Reynie and Sticky were well constructed. What I didn't like was the hint - in the first book it still was a mere hint - of scaring the kids out of their wits, mostly of physical nature, such as malicious executives or the waiting room contraption. On the other hand I gave the author credit for highlighting the possiblities of being brainwashed through TV - something I haven't often read in books for kids - and that he kept the supsense going. Towards the end of the book, though, I had a bad feeling ... to keep the bad guy alive always results in writing yet another book with more or less the same theme, and that doesn't speak for the creativity of the author ... it's the easy way out.
Sure enough, the second book (The Perilious Journey) turned out to be a total disaster. What hit me most was that it always is the old stereotypes over and over again> good guys versus bad guys; the bad guys always make the good ones suffer to no end, but the good ones will win in the end just by suffering and enduring. Most authors take great pains to let us know about all the horrors inflicted by the bad guys in detail, they will also depict the suffering of the good ones in all its facets (these two stereotypes alone could ruin your day) and in the end the good ones win, half dead, whereas the bad ones get away to secure the next volume. If this happens in books for grown ups it's one thing - if it happens in childrens' books, I think this is really unethical and unhealthy.
In the Perilious Journey Kate, Charlotte, Reynie and Sticky are chased and tormented (abused would be another fitting word here) physically, emotionally and psychologically by Curtains Tenmen, a special child-scaring unit it seems, to such an extend that in reality any healthy kid would break down with mulitiple traumata for the rest of his life. So this really turned me off, but there is more> the message. Any good childrens book, in my opinion, must have a message. Why should we infect children with our entertainment-for-the entertainment disease? A good book easliy combines a lot of aspects> a good message, something kids may go on thinking about, a healthy suspense, a minimum of violence ... and good entertainment.
What then is Trenton Lee-Stewart's message?
If you are pursued and terrorized by really evil people who won't shun from harming you (in ten effectful ways) just for the pleasure of doing so, and who will waste not thoughts on even killing you (Curtain and his men are trying to blow up the entrance to the security chamber on the SHORTCUT, knowing the explosion will kill most people, including the children in that room ... sounds familiar? Yea, terrorism!)- if all this happens to you, smart your way out, be good, keep smiling and forget about justice (smarting ones way out may be fine for the four geniuses in that book ... I wonder how normal children will relate to this). Rescue will come from such a person as Milligan, who, being nothing more than a heap of broken bones after his encounter with Curtains Tenmen, which all of whom survived due to Milligans nobel sleeping dart philosophy, is still (unbelievably so, but then this is the indestructible American superman idea) crawling around on the beach.
And justice? Oh, good Mr. Benedict is blackmailing one of the "bullfrogs", Mr. Pressius, who certainly deserves no better, but still ... it is blackmailing. And this after the author has taken great pains to point out that the good ones don't use the methods of the bad ones?
One could also say, Trenton Lee-Stewart's message in a nutshell is the old hypochondrical " If someone hits you on one cheek, offer him the other ". This is why America hasn't been fighting any more wars after WW 2 - they have always offered the other cheek!
Well, there is still a third book, thanks to the good ones being so good to have left Mr. Curtain and his Tenmen free torment or kill or bribe or brainwash more people in the next sequence. The one star is something one obviously has to give, otherwise the review won't be published ...
Summary of The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
The Mysterious Benedict Society is back with a new mission, significantly closer to home. After reuniting for a celebratory scavenger hunt, Reynie, Kate, Sticky, andWith only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all--a challenge that will reinforce the reasons they were brought together in the first place and will require them to fight for the very namesake that united them.
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