Just Finished Reading The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

I just finished reading the first of five books by Trenton Lee Stewart, series title The Mysterious Benedict Society...which is Book One's title as well. They started coming out in 2007, with the last volume in 2019. Disney put out a television series that I never watched...just like all the other streaming television series during the past several years that I never watched.  The premise of Stewart's series is familiar enough: outcast children have special skills that an eccentric old man has sought out for a special, dangerous project...but first they must past his test.  Since this book series, like Harry Potter, is primarily directed at children, a lot of the developments...including the "Test"...I could easily discern well in advance. Let me just say that I am sick and tired of bigshots who think they're experts on psychology and deliberately deceive job interviewees by inserting quirky, hidden character tests within the interview process.  An Apple CEO would go with the applicant to get some coffee and then judge their qualification for employment by what they did with the cup afterward...did they try to return or clean it, or did they just leave it on the desk?  In The Mysterious Benedict Society, old man Benedict treats the children similarly...groan. The danger that he has recruited the four child protagonists to combat is interesting enough...mind control though ultrasonic messages, although I think propagandists are, in our current "real" world, doing quite well just laying out all their crap directly out in the open on the Web and mass media for gullible suckers to gobble up.  I liked the kids' respective personalities and stories, enough to give the series a thumbs-up onward to the second book, after reading the first installment.  But I'm thinking of taking a little break before I do that...