Trenton Lee Stewart Books In Order

Publication Order of The Mysterious Benedict Society Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Trenton Lee Stewart is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author from Arkansas, US, who is famous for writing children’s books and literature & fiction novels. He is particularly popular for writing the Mysterious Benedict Society novel series. Author Trenton was born on May 27, 1970, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States. He spent most of his days growing up in Hot Springs. Author Trenton got interested in writing when he was studying in the 3rd grade. He went on to obtain his bachelor’s degree from the Hendrix College in the subject of English. Following this, he joined the Iowa Writer’s Workshop University and earned a creative writing MFA in 1995. Author Trenton also taught for some time at the Summer Writing Festival in Iowa. Later, he moved to Cincinnati and taught at Ohio’s Miami University in 2005. During the same time, the initial novels of author Trenton were published. His most popular novel, Mysterious Benedict Society, remained on the bestseller list of New York Times for more than a year. Recently, author Trenton was involved in teaching another course in creative writing at the Hendrix College in the year 2014. Finally, Trenton shifted back to Arkansas and started writing on a full time basis. He completed a couple more novels in his bestselling series, both of which made appearances on the NYT bestseller list. Trenton a prequel novel in 2012 and published it in the same year. As of now, author Stewart is working on the developing a couple of children’s books, which contain some of the elements of adventure and mystery fro, the Benedict series. He is happily married and stays with his gorgeous wife and 2 sons in Little Rock, Arkansas. Trenton’s parents, Sandi and Jerry Stewart, had a particular interest in literature. This helped author Trenton to develop interest in this field from a very young age.

Along with his older sister, he started enjoying the literary works and also began attempting to write poems and short stories very early in his life. While studying in college, Trenton met his future wife named Sara Beth Estes and married her very soon. The debut published work of author Trenton describes the story of a man, who gets fallen overboard a ship. The story tells the man’s final hours and his struggle to gain help in the middle of the vast ocean. The first full length novel written by Trenton is known as Flood Summer. This book is specifically written for adult readers. Flood Summer was liked by the first agent who set his eyes upon it. However, he could not sell it. Eventually, author Trenton had to find a publisher and sell it to him on his own. This way, he got the credit for his perseverance. When the publisher, who had rejected the previous book of Trenton, saw his the Benedict Society story, he showed a great interest in publishing it. Finally, it was the Little Brown publishing company that obtained the publishing rights of the book. When the book was released, the publishers requested author Trenton to attend a few book signing events and meet librarians throughout the country. When author Trenton was writing Flood Summer, a point came when he felt that he should not put much time into it. Instead, he decided to use the time to prepare the Benedict Society novel because its deadline was coming closer. The new novel built his confidence and made him believe that it is going to bring a lot of popularity and fame for him. Many critics believe that Trenton’s stories are similar to the ones Winston Churchill wrote long ago. Trenton likes to drink coffee, take long walks, play chess, visit art museums, and watch movies. One book that he loved to read a lot as a child is The Hobbit.

The Benedict Society series written by Trenton Lee Stewart is comprised of 3 books in total, which were released between the years 2007 and 2009. Its debut novel is entitled ‘The Mysterious Benedict Society’ and was released in 2007 by Little Brown publication. Author Trenton has mentioned the primary characters in this book as Sticky Washington, Miss Perumal, Reynie Muldoon, Constance Contraire, Kate Wetherall, Number Two, Rhonda Kazembe, Mr. Benedict, etc. At the start of the story, it is depicted that several children respond to a peculiar advertisement in the newspaper. Soon after, they are made to go through some mind bending tests. Out of all the children, only 4 are able to succeed the difficult tests. The four children, 2 boys and 2 girls, are given their real challenge of completing a secret mission, which only the highly inventive and intelligent kids are able to complete. For accomplishing the mission, the children are required to get undercover and join the Very Enlightened Learning Institute. This institute has only one, and that is, there aren’t any rules. The children go on to find shocking things that were kept hidden in the underground tunnels of the institute. The things that can help the children survive the mission and successfully complete it include their creativity and the knowledge of Morse Code. Now, it depends on how well they use the resources available to them.

The next novel of the series is called ‘Mysterious Benedict Society & the Perilous Journey’. It was published in 2008. Author Trenton has introduced the same characters once again, which were seen in the previous novel. At the beginning of the book, it is shown that the team of the 4 fabulous children returns again to take up a new challenge. They reunite with each other during a scavenger hunt and then are told to carry out the unexpected search of finding Mr. Benedict. Sticky, Constance, Reynie, and Kate learn that while Benedict was preparing the adventure for the kids, he was set up in a trap by the evil twin named Mr. Curtain. As there only a week left to find where Mr. Curtain kept the captured Mr. Benedict, the special kids faces the greatest challenge of their lives. This challenge will make them realize why they were made to come together. They will also have to battle for the namesake that made them get united. The book was liked by one and all, and was included in the bestseller list of the NYT. It also received a nomination for the Anthony Award in the category of the best young adult/children’s novel. Readers from all across the globe were delighted to read such an interesting novel. They liked the character description and the plot development. Author Trenton was praised for coming up with an equally exciting sequel to the bestselling debut book. And the motivation that he got from the immense success of the book helped him to develop the series’ next book.