where does the mysterious benedict society take place
The Mysterious Benedict Society Reynard "Reynie" Muldoon is an orphan living in the fictional city of Stonetown. Since young, he has demonstrated incredible creative-thinking skills and a great love for books, which results in him being isolated and teased at by the other orphans living in the same orphanage as him. His only comfort and company is Miss Perumal, his private tutor from India, whom he often shares the morning newspaper with. On a fateful day, the two notice an advertisement in the newspaper directed to "gifted children looking for special opportunities", prompting Reynie to take the test, which consists of many strange rounds of vigorous selection. In the process of testing, Reynie befriends George "Sticky" Washington, a timid boy with a photographic memory of words, and Kate Wetherall, a resourceful girl with tremendous physical ability and an odd habit of carrying around her things in a belted bucket. Finally, they meet Constance Contraire, a diminutive girl with a very defiant personality and a gift for wit, especially considering her minuscule size, as well as Mr. Benedict, the main devisor of the tests. Along with his two subordinates Number Two and Rhonda Kazembe, Mr. Benedict explains to the four children about a secret threat plaguing the world in the form of cryptic messages being broadcast into people's minds via television and radio. These messages, while infrequent, have been transmitted over the past few years and have aroused a sort of alarm and panic in people that they deem "the Emergency", which is in fact just an illusion by the Sender of the messages. Mr. Benedict has managed to locate the signals' source at Nomansan Island off the coast of Stonetown Harbour, in a school known as the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, and narrow down the Sender to the principal and founder of the school, Ledroptha Curtain. Needing evidence for his findings, Mr. Benedict enlists the four children to become his secret agents and infiltrate the Institute. With some hesitation, the four children eventually agree to become a team and name themselves "The Mysterious Benedict Society".