The Mysterious Benedict Society

Gr 5–9—Everyone who has read and enjoyed The Mysterious Benedict Society (Little, Brown, 2007) will remember the test that Reynie, Kate, Constance, and Sticky take at its beginning. In this book, readers dive into puzzles apparently designed by the mysterious Mr. Benedict and his colleagues. As the subtitle suggests, it's a collection of word games, and challenges involving names and numbers, shapes, and diagrams. Sudyka's illustrations, many of them in color, are everywhere, and are often essential to the solutions. An example is "Mr. Curtain's Controls," which features a picture of the unmarked, but multishaped and multicolored, buttons on the villain's wheelchair control panel and a set of seemingly unrelated clues, with the question: "Which is the OFF button?" Quotes from the characters in the series are everywhere, too, which suggests that this book will be of interest primarily to those who have read at least one of the books.—Walter Minkel, Austin Public Library, TX