The Mysterious Benedict Society
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50 free The Mysterious Benedict Society trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Mysterious Benedict Society starts with a newspaper advertisement and a set of very odd entry tests. Four lonely, brilliant children pass them, each in a completely different way, and are sent by the kindly Mr. Benedict to spy on a school where something is badly wrong. Trenton Lee Stewart's novel has kept young readers guessing since 2007, and it rewards anyone who enjoys a good riddle. This quiz follows the whole adventure: how Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance earn their places, what they uncover at the Institute, how the Whisperer works and how Mr. Curtain is finally stopped. A smaller group of questions covers the sequels and the prequel, the author, the awards and the television adaptation. It works as a comprehension check after finishing the novel, a ready-made set for a classroom or reading group, or a memory test for fans who read the series long ago. The opening questions are the gentlest, the later ones reward close readers, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Mysterious Benedict Society ends with which surprise about the cranky, sleepy Constance Contraire?
She is two years old
She is two years old, which explains the naps, the tantrums and the clumsiness the others grumble about. Mr. Benedict insists all along that she may be the most important member of the team.
Q 02In The Mysterious Benedict Society, the test supervisor's yellow suit and red hair remind Reynie of which object?
A pencil
A pencil is what Reynie thinks of the moment he sees her, which is the joke behind the name she goes by, Number Two. She runs the tests with a stiff back, snacking steadily all day long.
Q 03What does Kate Wetherall of The Mysterious Benedict Society carry everywhere, packed with rope, marbles and a slingshot?
A red bucket
A red bucket hangs from her belt, and it also holds a Swiss army knife, a horseshoe magnet and fishing twine. Kate rigs the contents into a tightrope during one of Mr. Benedict's tests.
Q 04When the children first meet Mr. Curtain in The Mysterious Benedict Society, he turns out to be Mr. Benedict's what?
Twin brother
Twin brother is the answer the children piece together from a riddle sent from the mainland. The pair were separated just after birth, when their parents died.
Q 05Mr. Curtain, villain of The Mysterious Benedict Society, drops into a sudden sleep whenever he feels which emotion?
Anger
Anger knocks him out cold, which is why Reynie goads him at the climax until he slumps. Mr. Benedict nods off too, but with him a good laugh is what does it.
Q 06Sticky, the boy with the flawless memory in The Mysterious Benedict Society, shares his real name with which president?
George Washington
George Washington is his real name, but everyone calls him Sticky. That comes from the way everything he reads stays stuck in his head.
Q 07Milligan, the gloomy bodyguard in The Mysterious Benedict Society, is revealed to be which relative of Kate Wetherall?
Her father
Her father was once a secret agent whose memory was stolen by Mr. Curtain's henchmen, which is why he never came home. It floods back while he is held prisoner on the island, desperate to get back to the children.
Q 08How do the four children of The Mysterious Benedict Society secretly report from the island to Mr. Benedict on shore?
Morse code
Morse code, flashed at night with a flashlight from the dormitory window, carries every report. The replies come back as riddles the children have to untangle.
Q 09Before joining The Mysterious Benedict Society, where did the orphaned Kate Wetherall run away to live and perform?
The circus
The circus took her in after a few years in an orphanage, and its tricks stayed with her. She walks tightropes, crawls through heating ducts and runs everywhere.
Q 10Reynie passes a test in The Mysterious Benedict Society by spotting that the 'squares' he must avoid are really what?
Rectangles
Rectangles cover the whole floor, so a sign banning blue and black squares bans nothing and Reynie simply strolls across. Sticky, missing the trick, crawls over instead.
Q 11In The Mysterious Benedict Society, which condition makes Mr. Benedict collapse into sleep in the middle of a laugh?
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy sends him to sleep whenever a strong emotion hits, which is why his two assistants are so protective of him. In the second novel he goes looking for a cure.
Q 12How does Mr. Curtain speed around his island school in The Mysterious Benedict Society?
In a motorized wheelchair
In a motorized wheelchair he comes roaring into the classroom on the children's first day. He can walk, though, as the children learn when he stands up at the climax.
Q 13How do the four children celebrate in the final scene of The Mysterious Benedict Society, watched by Mr. Benedict?
Q 21What does Milligan fire to knock out the kidnappers in the maze in The Mysterious Benedict Society?
Tranquilizer darts
Tranquilizer darts drop the two men who have stuffed Constance into a duffel bag. He fires three more at the climax, at the Executives who have Kate cornered.
Q 22Rhonda hints that the maze of identical rooms in The Mysterious Benedict Society can be finished in what way?
With their eyes closed
With their eyes closed is the clue, because one arrow on each doorway panel can be felt with the fingertips. Reynie works it out, and all three children get through in different ways.
Q 23On which island in the city's harbor does Mr. Curtain run his school in The Mysterious Benedict Society?
A snowball fight
A snowball fight breaks out once every one of them has found a family. It comes a few days after the escape, with Sticky reunited with his parents.
Q 14Which habit betrays the nerves of bald, bookish Sticky throughout The Mysterious Benedict Society?
Polishing his spectacles
Polishing his spectacles is what he falls back on whenever he is frightened. Once he finds his courage near the end of the first novel, the habit drops away for the rest of the story.
Q 15The TV version of The Mysterious Benedict Society, first developed for Hulu, premiered on which streaming service?
Disney+
Disney+ took the show over from its sister service and opened with a two-episode premiere. It was cancelled after two seasons.
Q 16Which actor stars as the kindly Mr. Benedict in the TV series The Mysterious Benedict Society and also produced it?
Tony Hale
Tony Hale was a producer as well as the star, and said reading the novels showed him how much warmth and compassion the character needed. The role won him a Children's and Family Emmy.
Q 17Which character, Reynie Muldoon's tutor at the orphanage, adopts him at the end of The Mysterious Benedict Society?
Miss Perumal
Miss Perumal spotted the newspaper advertisement that started everything and took him to the first test. He composes letters to her in his head whenever life at the Institute gets hard.
Q 18What does Constance Contraire write instead of answers on the entry tests in The Mysterious Benedict Society?
Poems
Poems, and rude ones, are her reply to every question, because she will only take part on her own terms. Mr. Benedict finds it so funny that he laughs himself to sleep.
Q 19What does Mr. Curtain call his method of wiping people's memories in The Mysterious Benedict Society?
Brainsweeping
Brainsweeping does not destroy memories but hides them where their owners cannot reach them. The sad, silent workers at his school have all been through it.
Q 20Students who break the rules at Mr. Curtain's school in The Mysterious Benedict Society are sent to which dreaded place?
The Waiting Room
The Waiting Room leaves Sticky shaking and plastered in black mud after he is caught cheating. Milligan is later locked in there too, and escapes.
Nomansan
Nomansan is joined to the mainland by a bridge, which the children cross to enrol. Several years earlier Milligan escaped from it by swimming to shore.
Q 24Mr. Curtain's school in The Mysterious Benedict Society is the Learning Institute for the Very what?
Enlightened
Enlightened completes the name and gives the initials L.I.V.E., which spell something far less friendly read backwards. The lessons are slogans learned by rote.
Q 25What title do top students hold at Mr. Curtain's school in The Mysterious Benedict Society, earning secret privileges?
Messengers
Messengers have their thoughts fed through the Whisperer, though they are never told what they are really sending. Reynie and Sticky reach the rank after some cheating that Mr. Benedict himself suggests.
Q 26What are the silent adults in white uniforms who cook and clean at the school in The Mysterious Benedict Society called?
Helpers
Helpers may not speak to students or even look at them, and they are people who crossed Mr. Curtain and had their memories erased. Reynie recognises one as a school inspector he used to know.
Q 27What do newspapers in The Mysterious Benedict Society call the worldwide panic that Mr. Curtain is secretly causing?
The Emergency
The Emergency is a vague dread that everything is going wrong, stirred up by hidden messages in television and radio signals. Mr. Curtain plans to step in as the man who ends it.
Q 28When Reynie loses heart in The Mysterious Benedict Society, Mr. Benedict tells him to remember which chess piece?
The white knight
The white knight comes from a puzzle on the entry test that only Reynie ever solved, about a piece moved out and straight back. The reminder tells him that doubt is no reason to retreat.
Q 29After Milligan takes away her rope in The Mysterious Benedict Society, how does Kate finally cross the checkered floor?
On her hands
On her hands she walks the whole way across, since the rule only bans feet from the wrong tiles. Her first crossing was along a tightrope she rigged from her own rope.
Q 30Where does Reynie find the answers to the impossibly hard second test in The Mysterious Benedict Society?
In the exam paper itself
In the exam paper itself is where each answer hides, so question 21 gives away question 1 and so on to the end. Sticky misses the trick and simply knows everything.