Nicholas Benedict is 9 years old and a very unusual child. He is afflicted with narcolepsy, which means that when he becomes excited or emotionally stressed, he falls asleep instantaneously wherever he is or whatever he is doing. He is extremely intelligent and observant, which is grating to the adults he is around. And Nicholas is an orphan, on his way to his newest orphanage, Rothschild’s End, as this book opens.
Nicholas arrives at a train station to meet Mr. Collum, the director of his new home. He immediately makes a poor impression by falling asleep on the drive to the orphanage. When he has woken, he has been left in a parked car alone. A boy, John, has been sent out to wait for him to wake and bring him inside whenever that occurs. John warns Nicholas about the bullies of the orphanage, who are called the “Spiders”. Between the Spiders and Mr. Collum’s strict rules, Nicholas has a hard time of it but keeps his spirits up by inventing. Due to his night terrors, Nicholas has been given a private room which he is locked in to every night and let out in the morning. Before his arrival, his only window was removed. It doesn’t take Nicholas long to start inventing solutions to his problems.
Very quickly, Nicholas is introduced to the monotony of life in this financially strapped institution. The only alteration is when he discovers that Child’s End holds a mystery- a treasure that could rescue him from the orphanage forever.
Nicholas is a Sherlock Holmes for the primary set. He is constantly three steps ahead of everyone else, including the adults he encounters. He faces obstacles with reason and good humor. The book is about a hundred pages longer than it ought to be and does tend to drag towards the middle, but is overall pretty pleasant.