The Mysterious Benedict Society

     I have just started a new book called The Mysterious Benedict Society and so far it is good for the 12 pages that I have read.  The novel is about a boy named Raynie who is orphaned. He is an 11 year old boy, is "of average height, of an average complextion, his brown hair [is] of average length, and he wore average clothes,"(pg. 7) and yet he is beyond average.  This boy is very special in smarts and maturity.  He is poilite and kind to everyone he meets and yet, he gets bullied at his orphanage for being different.  Raynie is ment to be at an advanced school, but the orphanage director, Mr. Rutger, "insisted Reynie would be far better here, with a tutor, than at an advanced school,"(pgs. 5-6), and that he believed Raynie was comfortable at the orphanage; when really Raynie only felt alone. 

       Insted of going to an advanced school, Raynie got the privledge of having the nice tutor, Miss Perumal.  They have tea and read the newspaper in the morning and work throughout the day on the rest of his studies.  She is even teaching him Tamil and usually speaks Tamil to him when telling stories.      
        One morning while reading the paper, Raynie catches a headline saying how "things have gotten desperatly out of control...the school systems, the budget, the pollution, the crime, the weather...why, everything, in fact, was a complete mess, and ctizens everywhere were clamoring for a mayor-no, a dramatic-improvement in government,"(pg. 3). Then, he catches a headline adressed to children stating, "ARE YOU A GIFTED CHILD LOOKING FOR SPECIAL OPPORTUNITES?"(pg. 3).  At first Raynie is iffy on the decision and thinks this might interest him, but his tutor convinces him completely by telling him how special and talented he is. 
       By getting a little approval from Mr. Rutger, because Raynie convinced him that he just wants to see what its about and Mr. Rutgar believes there is no harm in that, Raynie gets to take the test.  He is driven in the morning with his tutor to the testing building and is left there with luck and a pencil.  Raynie finishes the test just in time but doubts he did well by overhearing other students talk about their answers.

       That is how far I have gotten, but I predict that Raynie will get 100% on the test.  I believe he has potential and also that the book would really stink if we didn't know what the special opportunities were.  I also predict that the mysterious benedict society is made up of the kids who pass the test and maybe adults who are already enrolled and are trying to make a new society because theirs right now is in chaos. 

         The author of this book is Trenton Lee Stewart and this book is also a New York Times Bestseller.  If you would like to learn more about this interesting novel go to: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/mysteriousbenedictsociety/index.html 

There are also two other books in the series called: The Mysterious Benedict Society ans the Prisoners Dilemma and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey.

The Invention of Everything Else...by: Samantha Hunt

     This story takes place in the Big Apple; A.K.A New York City.  It starts by showing the life of a 80 something year old man, who just happens to be the inventor of the radio.  He doesn't have the life that people would of thought he would have.  He lives in a hotel room, and not a Penthouse either.  Why is he living like this? Well, the 80 year old man, named Nicola Tesla, said that it was all because a man named Guglielmo Marconi stole his idea and told the world that he was the one who invented the radio.  So insted of living the good life, Nicola spends his days cooing to pigions and even talking to them; like he can hear so well that he can hear the voice vibrations coming from pigions. 

    In the next chapter the reader is introduced to a new life, the life of Louisa and her father Walter.  Louisa is a grown woman who lives with her father in a apartment in NYC.  Louisa works in the Hotel New Yorker; which happens to be the same hotel Nicola Tesla resides in.  She discovers Mr. Tesla on her daily rounds as a maid and he facinates her. She found out about him when he was doing one of his experiments that sucked all of the power out of the whole hotel. That didn't make the hotel very happy, but he still remained a mystery to Louisa.

       One night her dad tells Louisa that they have to go to this live radio station viewing which talks about science related topics.  He says that his good friend Azor Carter is going to be on it and has invited them to come and see him.  When they get there they find out why he is being interviewed, he created a time machine and it actually works.
        The book then goes back to the life of Nicola Tesla before he thought of the radio and how his journey first started.  He first had to come to America and was requested by a high powered man from where he lives to go to Mr. Edison about his idea about the radio.  Mr. Tesla comes across this idea when his ears become super sensitive to everything around him.  Then he learned to accept it and saw the contraption right before his eyes that would make the radio work, an alternating current engine.  So, Nicola goes to America and works with Mr. Edison for a while, but when he brings up his idea, Mr. Edison just laughed at him.  This made him mad so he quite and insted went, i think to a construction company, and dug a hole for two years.  After the two years a man called down to him to tell Mr. Tesla that Mr. A.K. Brown of Western Union Telegraph Comany wanted to start the Tesla Electric Company with him.  His waiting finally paid off.
        So far, this is all I know about the book, but I will continue on to find out more about Louisa and Nicola.  This wouldn't of been my first choice of books, but as I read it, I found it actually really interesting.  I have to mix the book genres up every once in a while, so I thought, why not give this one a shot.  It takes a little longer to read then my previous books, but it is paying off in the end.  Right now I feel really bad for Nicola, because he is just an innocent man who was robbed of his fame for the invention that he had created.  I predict that Louisa will use the time machine and go back in time to find Mr. Tesla and then she will finally know why he s a little wierd.  Then I think the two of them will become good friends. I can't wait to read more and meet the Guglielmo Marconi that stole all of Mr. Tesla's work. 

Here is a New York Times book review of The Invention of Everything Else-

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/books/review/Thomas-t.html

More reviews about this book at-
 http://www.bookbrowse.com/arc/arc_reviews/detail/?arc_number=17

Samantha Hunts website that gives book reviews, about the author information, you can purchase the book on her site and more- http://www.samanthahunt.net/tesla2.html

Samantha Hunt

If you would like to purchase this book, the hard cover is $18.72 and the paper back is $11.16. Here is the website that brings you to purchacing the book on amazon.com-

http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Everything-Else-Samantha-Hunt/dp/061880112X    

Here is a website for purchasing it on Barns and Noble- http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Invention-of-Everything-Else/Samantha-Hunt/e/9780618801121