Is The “Mysterious Benedict Society” Kosher

i read it when i was younger so i dont wanna take achrayus but as far as i remmemmber it was a good clean read, ok for torahdike yidden

“The Mysterious Benedict Society” series by Trenton Lee Stewart is generally considered clean and is aimed at middle-grade readers, so it doesn’t contain explicit content, strong language, or inappropriate relationships. The books focus on themes like intelligence, friendship, teamwork, and moral choices. The main characters are children with unique talents who work together to solve mysteries and prevent an evil scheme, promoting positive values.

For a frum Orthodox Jewish perspective, these books are often viewed as suitable, especially because they don’t include objectionable material or supernatural elements like magic, which can sometimes be a concern in other children’s series.

If I remember correctly, Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZTL ZYA
once said, in a public lecture, that if you want to find
kosher secular books to read, then search for books
that were written a very long time go,
before the secular society became atheist and immoral.

If you want kosher secular books to read, then I suggest
the Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
and “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien.

Also biographies of people who lived long ago,
like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

SQRT, I don’t think R Miller quoted Tolkien, he was talking about classical classics, like Dickens.

Yeshivaguy, the violence, and perhaps even the ” romance”, in Jewish novels today is far, far, far worse than in Sherlock Holmes books. My daughter borrowed a book from her classmate who comes from a very frum family. Just looking at the title made me cringe. And although I have no patience for these plots, that that make no sense, I had to proofread the book. I couldn’t finish reading it. The plot was basically about a Mossad agent going on a mission and keeps on getting caught and escaping his enemies. And it’s a series where the books all have the same plot basically ( i started reading the sequence as well and it’s the same thing over and over again) throughout the entire protagonist’s journey (s), the violence is non-stop, vivid descriptions of torture, violence, murder, it’s absolutely horrific. I certainly did not let my daughter read those books.

This series, and similar violent books, are being sold in heimishe store and are on bookshelfs in heimishe libraries. Many of these books written by frum authors in the last two decades also have very bad hashkafas and model bad middos. Disregard of kibbud av v’eim, kids having doubts about yiddishket, bullying, etc. In the end, often the characters would redeem themselves and straighten out in the end, but what about kids minds being affected by the character’s doubts and conflicts and actions that are against the Torah?

Sherlock Holmes, imo, is much better than this frum garbage. But don’t take my word on it, I read those books years ago when i was a teenager and don’t remember all the details. Perhaps as a parent I’d see those books differently regarding the romance you say is in the books, but as far as violence, it is very clean accordingly to many books written by frum authors and sold in sefarim stores.

philosopher, I think there’s a difference between “violence” and “action.”
Many Jewish novels have a action and conflicts in there (as we all struggle in life), but by the end of the book, the conflict is usually resolved.

The Mysterious Benedict Society is actually the perfect book for sheltered kids because much of the plot centers around the bad guys infiltrating people’s minds through media.

MRS PLONY said:

“Did Avigdor Miller say anything about the Narnia books?”

MY RESPONSE:

The Narnia books written by C. S. Lewis contain a very strong Xtian messages.
Reading those books is like reading Xtian missionary literature.

MY ADVICE: Stay away from the Narnia books written by C. S. Lewis.
Even the Gentiles are turning away from those books.