Lit Literature Gang

By Marlow Tracy For many of my elementary school years, The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart was my absolute favorite book. It had everything: solvable puzzles, engaging narration, quirky characters, and an adventurous plotline. Recently, I gave the book a re-read to see if it actually lived up to my childhood self’s admiration. The answer is a definite yes. The Mysterious Benedict Society begins when Reynie Muldoon, an orphan with a knack for solving puzzles, finds an advertisement in the newspaper that leads him to take a series of mind-boggling tests. Upon completion, he learns that he, along with four other children, has been recruited by a man called Mr. Benedict to infiltrate the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, or L.I.V.E, an academic institute with seemingly sinister intent. He joins Sticky Washington, a runaway who remembers everything he reads, Kate Wetherall, an acrobat with a red bucket, and Constance contraire,...

By Kate A      Capturing the Devil by Kerri Maniscalco is the last book in the four-book Stalking Jack the Ripper series. I wrote a review of the third book in the series, Escaping from Houdini , in the beginning of September before this book came out, but I haven't been able to read it until recently.      This book is about a forensic scientist named Audrey Rose Wadsworth, who works with her uncle and his apprentice, Thomas Cresswell, who is also Audrey's fiancee. The book takes place in January and February of 1889, and it begins right after Audrey, her uncle, and Thomas arrived in New York City on a ship that sailed from London. Audrey and Thomas plan to get married while they are in New York, but their wedding was crashed by a woman named Ms. Whitehall, who claims to be betrothed to Thomas. They later found out that Thomas's father had arranged for him to marry Ms. Whitehall without either Audrey or Thomas knowing. Meanwhile, Audrey and Thomas...

Due to popular opinion among my classmates at the time, I expected The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster to be a "really awesome good book" as a 5th grader several years ago. I read it, understood some of it, did not love it, and forgot it. The older-style writing bored me very quickly and I had thought back then that to fully enjoy a book it had to be fifteen years or younger. Now, going back to this children's classic, I can now comprehend the genius world-building and execution of The Phantom Tollbooth . Milo is a normal boy, who is extremely bored one day when he finds a strange package addressed to him that he does not know the contents of. He finds a tollbooth that he has to put together inside as well as a small electric car. He finishes the tollbooth, steps inside, and is immediately transported to the Lands Beyond. He finds himself suddenly driving on a road, an activity that he enjoys and thus continues doing. Little does he know that he is about to make new ...