I loved the first installment of Trenton Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society books and this second installment was pretty fantastic as well. Lots of adventure, thrills, and more of those brilliant children we've all come to love!
Book two, titled The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, does in fact, take the reader on quite the journey! Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance reunite about a year after the first book finished, ready to go on a scavenger hunt their beloved Mr. Benedict has set up for them. Unfortunately, once the pair gets together, instead of a fun game, they must complete the scavenger hunt in order to find Mr. Benedict, who has been kidnapped by the evil Mr. Curtain. The quartet boards a ship and ends up on a journey around the world, searching for their leader. All of the enemies from the first book are back and extra nasty, but the tricks the kids have up their sleeves are even more impressive, making for an awesome adventure.
I love these books and I'm already looking forward to the next one. If a book keeps me turning pages, involves me in the minds of the characters, and puts a smile on my face, it's a definite winner. Children will love this book, whether or not they've read the first book.
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By: Amanda,
on 6/3/2008
Blog: A Patchwork of Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Rebecca,
on 12/21/2007
Blog: OUPblog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Yesterday, Robert Mack, the editor of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, wrote about the many incarnations of the tale. Today Mack looks at Sondheim’s version. This post first appeared on Powell’s.
Stephen Sondheim first came across the Todd story on a visit to London in 1973, when he saw Christopher Bond’s version on stage. Bond had made the story darker and less melodramatic than previous versions, in which Todd was portrayed as an increasingly paranoid homicidal maniac, who murdered simply out of greed. Bond was the first dramatist to provide Todd with a convincing, well thought-out, and fully integrated ‘back story’. At the beginning of the play, Todd’s anger is explained: it is directed exclusively at the local judge and beadle who together, many years before, had destroyed his career, transported him for life as a convicted felon, and (he believes) killed his beloved wife. Todd’s aim is revenge, pure and simple. Only after his initial attempts to do away with the judge and beadle are frustrated does he come to the conclusion that ‘the work’s its own reward’, and decides that until he has another shot at his enemies he will ‘practice on less honoured throats’. (more…)