{"id":43679,"date":"2025-06-11T06:52:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T10:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeemedreader.com\/?p=43679"},"modified":"2025-06-12T15:43:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:43:29","slug":"benny-on-the-case-by-wesley-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeemedreader.com\/benny-on-the-case-by-wesley-king\/","title":{"rendered":"*Benny on the Case by Wesley King"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Benny on the Case introduces a sleuth with Mosaic Down Syndrome and an indomitable, loyal partner.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Benny on the Case<\/em> by Wesley King. Simon & Schuster, 2025, 273 pages.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Reading Level:<\/strong> Middle Grades<\/a>, ages 8-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended for<\/strong>: ages 8-14<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a long-anticipated, but anxious day for Benny Brooks: his first day in a standard sixth-grade classroom. As a boy with Mosaic Down, he doesn\u2019t have a lot of the symptoms that go with that condition. He can read and speak clearly. He likes math and working with his hands. But \u201cit looks<\/em> like I\u2019ve got Down syndrome. And I do . . . just the rarer kind with the funny name, like I\u2019m made up of little pieces of color that form some bigger shape called Benny.\u201d His looks have been his destiny, but his special-ed teacher knows he\u2019s capable of doing sixth-grade work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day One is kind of a disaster, owing to class bully Mark (Benny already knows to look out for him) and the saccharine, unsubtle digs of Ashlin. To make it worse, he forgot his lunch, forcing his mum to take time out of a busy day and barge into the school cafeteria yelling for him. But there\u2019s one saving grace: the other new kid. Salma\u2019s has just moved to Newfoundland from Seattle to be closer to her mother\u2019s family. But her father is originally from Tunisia, which accounts for Salma\u2019s darker skin and knowledge of Arabic. Thus marked as a foreigner, she comes in for the same kind of treatment as Benny. The two form a natural alliance against the regulars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up to now, Benny\u2019s best friend has been a resident of his mother\u2019s retirement home on the bluff. Mr. Tom encourages the boy\u2019s natural mechanical talent as they work his fishing boat Maggie<\/em>, meanwhile serving as a sounding board and substitute father figure. Benny\u2019s mum doesn\u2019t like the boat, or the sea, because that\u2019s how she lost Benny\u2019s dad\u2014but soon she has something else to worry about when one of her residents is robbed. Then another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second burglary unfortunately occurs during a visit from the county inspector. Though sympathetic, he informs Mrs. Brooks that further incidents could lead to Starflower by the Sea Retirement Home being shut down, which would be disaster for the residents, not to mention Benny and his mother. Salma, whose grandmother is also a resident, feels a personal stake in the problem. What if she and Benny could do some detective work of their own?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot going on in these 200+ pages besides a standard whodunnit: Benny is branching out from a sheltered environment, dealing with personal conflicts, struggling with change, confronting physical decline and death, facing down a bully, and learning self-confidence. It\u2019s all told in Benny\u2019s voice in the dialect of his island (and the author\u2019s home). A guide to Newfoundland slang at the beginning of the book cues the reader to frequent insertions of \u201cb’ys,\u201d and \u201cwhadda y\u2019ats\u201d (which intrigued me, so I had to look up videos\u2014the accent sounds a lot like Irish).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s very little mention of God here, even in talks about death. When advising Benny about how to deal with Mark, Mr. Tom asserts that most people want to be good; they just don\u2019t know how. The Bible has some disagreement abut that, but Mr. Tom\u2019s counsel to do what\u2019s right even if it\u2019s not reciprocated proves true when Benny puts it into practice: \u201cI had a bunch of bad things happening right now, but I didn\u2019t want to act like a bad person because of them.\u201d He learns to stand up for himself and face opposition in such a winning way I was kind of sad to say goodbye (or good-by\u2019s?) to him. Maybe he\u2019ll be back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom Line<\/strong>: Outstanding character development and a mystery besides\u2014what\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also at Redeemed Reader:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n