The Mysterious Benidict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

This book is a really great book about four kids who are all incredibly gifted. Their names are Reynie (short for Reynard), Kate, Sticky (short for George), and Constance. They see in ad in the newspaper, which all of them read, saying, “Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?”

They all go and take a bunch of tests. A lot of kids go to take the tests, but only they make it through all the tests. After they’re done, they meet a man named Mr. Benidict who tells them about a troubling matter. He tells them about the sender, a man named Mr. Curtain. He sends messages through TV programs and radio stations. It makes people think things that aren’t very true.

Mr. Benidict sends the members of the newly formed Mysterious Benidict Society to the place where Mr. Curtain sends his messages, the Learning Institute For the Very Enlighted (LIVE). When they get there, they see Mr. Curtain for the first time, and are surprised to see that he looks just like Mr. Benidict. They use Morse Code to signal him. They say, “We see Mr. B. when we see Mr. C. How can this be?” They find that the two men are twins seperated by birth.

Reynie and Sticky do really well on the tests they take at the Institute and become messengers. Messengers are the children who send the strange messages. They know that the improvement, as Mr. Curtain calls it, is coming so they make all the messengers except themselves sick so the boys have a chance to go in the Whisperer (the sender of the messages). They get Kate and Constance to come and Constance defeats the Whisperer by using her obstinate attitude.

This is a great book and I recommend it to anyone who likes adventure, humor, and suspense. (There is two other books in the series. Read them all!)

Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Love, Stargirl is the sequel to the book Stargirl. It is a journal in the form of a letter. It takes place after she has moved away to Pennsylvania, Leo’s birth place. She makes a lot of new friends, both young and old. There’s 5 year old Dootsie, Alvina who’s 11, Betty Lou who is afraid to leave her  house, Charlie who stays by his dead wife’s grave all day, Arnold who wanders the piles of stones, and Perry the thief who soon falls in love with Stargirl himself. Soon she has to make a hard decision, is it Leo or Perry?

This is a great book for kids looking for humor, excitement, and a touch of romance that’s perfect for tweens.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Stargirl is a book by Jerry Spinelli and is about a girl that had recently been homeschooled and has decided to try going to an actual school for tenth grade.

Because she has been alone and has never thought about herself as “weird”, when she goes to school, everyone thinks she’s different and no one wants to be her friend. She plays the ukulele and in the lunchroom when it’s someone’s birthday, she’ll strum it and sing happy birthday to them. She also has a pet rat named Cinnamon.

Eventually she falls in love with a boy named Leo. Suddenly, a popular kid who co-runs his own TV show is getting the silent treatment from his peers. And it’s all because he walks with the girl nobody likes in the hall and will say hi to her in between classes. As a result, he asks her to change so that people who were never actually his friends will notice him.

Now Stargirl’s only friend does not like her, and even though Leo still likes her, she is not herself and doesn’t like herself any more.

I recommend this book to all kids, but mostly to middle and high school kids who are going through these circumstances.