Trenton Lee Stewart's 'Mysterious' Path to Success

Trenton Lee Stewart’s debut children’s novel, The Mysterious Benedict Society, arrived on bookshelves last fall to critical praise, and it’s been selling steadily ever since. The tale of four specially talented children who use their wits and tenacity to save the day during a secret mission has also earned other accolades, including the 2008 E.B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers, which will be handed out at BEA next week. A sequel followed quickly: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey came out this month, alongside the paperback edition of its predecessor. Combined, all three editions now total 200,000 copies in print.

“It was always my goal to be a writer, and I had been writing fiction for adults for a while,” says Stewart, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. “I hadn’t been long thinking of being a children’s book writer, but it was always a possibility. I figured that when my own children were old enough to read, I’d write stories for them.”

It turns out Stewart is a bit ahead of schedule, as his two sons are six and three, not quite able to tackle Dad’s books on their own. “I kept getting these slightly preposterous ideas that didn’t fit anywhere else,” Stewart recalls of beginning The Mysterious Benedict Society. “I thought when I pieced them together they might make a humorous adventure novel for children, filled with riddles and puzzles and breakneck action—the kind of story I loved when I was 10 or 11.”

Though Stewart’s older son may not have read his father’s books yet, he’s very familiar with them all the same. While he was working on Perilous Journey, Stewart says, “We’d walk to school every morning and he’d ask me, ‘Then what happened?’ and I’d launch into a summary. It kept me on my toes!”

While the writing process was pretty smooth, the road to publication began, oddly enough, with a bit of car trouble. “I got the manuscript on a Thursday from Eric Simonoff, an agent I’d never worked with before,” says Megan Tingley, senior v-p and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, and Stewart’s editor. “I was set to drive to Boston the next day, but my car broke down and I had to take a bus,” she says. “It’s a very long ride and I kept thinking, ‘Thank God I have this manuscript.’ It drew me in from the very first page because it had this wonderful classic storytelling style that reminded me of books that had such an impact on me when I was a child. I just knew I was onto something special.”

Car trouble may have gotten the publishing timetable rolling, but the editing process presented a bit of a logistical challenge. “The author, the illustrator and myself all had babies on the way at the time,” Tingley recalls. “I like to say this novel was the product of a very fertile imagination,” she jokes.

According to Tingley, the qualities that set Stewart’s work apart include his facility and care with language, something she believes invites readers to “pause and ponder” rather than just embrace the book as a page-turner. “Another thing that distinguishes his books from some of the great middle-grade fiction out there right now is that his characters don’t have magical powers,” Tingley adds. “I think that’s more accessible to children. These kids are gifted but they don’t use a wand, or fly or have psychic ability. They rely on their ingenuity and force of will to solve problems and triumph over adversity. They have magical adventures without magic, which is really clever.”

Readers think so, too. “We have lots of kids requesting it,” says Valerie Lewis, co-owner of children’s specialty store Hicklebee’s in San Jose, Calif. “We’ve done very well with the books, and we had kids everywhere when Trent was here for an event a couple of weeks ago.” Lewis counted herself a fan of The Mysterious Benedict Society from the start and cites the books as handselling favorites. “It’s the familiar good-over-evil scenario where young people—all orphans in this case—face a challenge bigger than life and save the day.” But although they have classic tones, Lewis thinks Stewart’s books also serve a timely need. “It gives kids a sense of strength. They are always hearing about war and the world falling apart, and they can start feeling out of control,” she explains. “But when they can read a book about kids working together to save the world, that’s very helpful.”

At Books & Books in Coral Gables, Fla., children’s events and marketing coordinator Emily Pardo says that she and her staff were instantly taken with Stewart’s first book when they saw the galley. “The title was catchy, the cover art just drew us in and then, we read the classified ad that kicks off the story: ‘Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?’ That’s it, we were hooked, and so were our customers.” As The Mysterious Benedict Society took off, Pardo notes, “We started to get kids—and parents—coming in only days after having bought the book wanting to know if there would be a sequel.”

Pardo believes that the Mysterious Benedict Society books are especially versatile. “They appeal to both boys and girls, and can be appreciated by a wide range of ages and reading levels,” she says. “Parents like them too, because the puzzles, riddles, and elevated vocabulary challenge children to take an even more active role in the story.” Like Hicklebee’s, Books & Books was also one of Stewart’s recent book tour stops. “The response was overwhelming,” she says, “and the signed books he left continue to fly off the shelves.”

The Mysterious Benedict Society was initially pitched to Tingley as a standalone book. “But it felt to me that it could move on,” she says. “When I asked Trent if he had any other ideas for these characters, he did. We bought two books with that in mind.” Since then Stewart has taken it one step further, noting that he is currently working on the “third and final installment.”

Little, Brown has put some marketing muscle behind the Mysterious Benedict Society as well. Stewart recently returned from an eight-city tour promoting the release of Perilous Journey and the publisher has created a dedicated Web site, www.mysteriousbenedictsociety.com, which includes a newsletter, author information and additional puzzles, activities and games. National advertising, an on-air promotion with Radio Disney and a mixed floor display are some of the other elements of the latest campaign. The efforts have landed Perilous Journey on several bestseller lists, and the paperback edition of the first volume joined it last week.

“I’ve been very pleased with the reception,” says Tingley, “and especially the critics’ attention.” She notes that the sales have been “excellent; they’ve been building and building.” And she’s still hearing from people she gave copies to last fall. “I knew if people read it, it would get passed along.”

While the Mysterious Benedict Society’s hot run may come to a close with the forthcoming third title, there is more in store from Stewart: both author and editor express confidence about planning future projects. “It will be sad to see those characters go away, but I know we’ll be working on other things,” says Tingley.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart. Little, Brown, $16.99,978-0-316-05780-6 ages 8-12