Iris Petrin’s Reviews > The Mysterious Benedict Society > Status Update

Kate and Constance are being suspected more and more of being spies. Constance, who had never made a good impression, is acting even worse, and after a mission to find answers, Kate is almost caught multiple times. Reynie and Sticky however are appointed messengers and spend their first time in he Whisperer, Mr. Curtin's evil machine. To their horror, they love the Whisperer and can't want for their next visit.

After a messenger list is posted,the four children are disappointed to find none of their names are on it.Reynie,however,stayed behind in the classroom just gazing at the list when Mr.Curtin,the man who runs the institute,comes into class.Alone in the room,they have a conversation so interesting that Mr.Curtin invites Reynie back to his office to continue talking.Reynie discovers Mr.Curtins thoughts on the children.

As the children work hard to not get caught as spies,rise to the top of their classes and somehow manage to get sleep they start to piece things together.One day, in class,the four children were annoyed agitated, angry, and had headaches for no apparent reason.Constance even could hear voices of classmates in her head.They realize that time is running out and they need to get Kate and Constance to have better scores.

At the institute, the Mysterious Benedict Society (what the kids named themselves) tries hard to get to the top of the class in order to become a messenger, a high-grade student with "secret privileges." Reynie and Sticky are doing well but Constance and Kate are falling behind. It's up to the four of them to learn the secrets of the institute and send vague messages in morse code to their allies on the mainland.

After learning that a mysterious organization may destroy the world and its up to the themselves to stop it, naturally, the four children are quite ruffled. However, they decide to believe Mr. Benedict, a genius who randomly falls asleep, and his companions,Ronda, a sweet young women. Number Two, a high energy women who eats a lot from the lack of sleep, and Milligan, a sad body guard who knows nothing of his past.

After the tests,there are only four children left,including Reynie.The three other children include Sticky, a nervous bookworm who can read a full page book in minutes.Kate,a wild,energy-high girl who can calculate distance by just eyeballing.And Constance,a tiny bratty girl who appears to have no talent except for making exceptionally rude poems.Together they learn they must put themselves in risk to save the world.

Reynie, an 11 year old gifted orphan is too smart to go to a public school. He and his tutor, Miss Perumal sit at the breakfast table evey morning discussing the news, but one day, they see an ad in the paper that reads, "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?" They decide to look into the ad and the next day, Reynie is dropped of at the building where the test will take place.