Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society. Illus. Carson Ellis. Boston: Little, Brown, 2007.
When I was seven and my sister was 4, we were forced to play with the Lewman boys (Andy and Timmy, who were the same age as we were) while our parents chatted after dinner. Upstairs in the boys' bedroom, we were appaled to find that the boys mostly had Hot Wheels (bleh) and Legos (double bleh). This meant that there was only one option for play: Pretend.
Pretend went something like this:
Let's pretend...
... that we are orphans... and that we all have special skills (I was a super-genius and can't remeber what everyone else was)... and that we're spies... and that we have to save the world.
That's all one really needs to be entertained for an hour or two.
Stewart's novel is just like that - all the delightful play and puzzles of a 7 year old's make-believe drama, wrapped up in a funny, well crafted, powerfully plotted novel.
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