For ten terrible years she’s lived under the sinister rule of Miss Adderstone in gloomy Hardwick House. But her life changes overnight when she finds a mysterious book on hypnotism and discovers an amazing talent – the power to make people do anything she wants them to! Escaping from the orphanage, Molly heads to New York in search of fame and fortune. But her adventures lead her into the clutches of a dangerous enemy, who will stop at nothing to steal her hypnotic secret…

The main characters in this book are:

1. Molly Moon
2. Petula
3. Simon
4. Rocky
5. Miss Adderstone
6. Edna
7. Lucy

Some tips from Molly:

“Here are some off the top of my head.

First of all… Be careful of hypnotising under water. I suppose this is an odd one to start with, but I’m looking at a glass of water here, and so I thought of it.
So, as I was saying, be careful. This is why. The refraction of the water can do funny things to your hypnotic eye glare and people can think they’re hypnotised by the water and not by you. When they think they’re hypnotised by the water it’s really tricky as they do all sorts of weird things. They want to sleep in the water for instance and they want to keep drinking it. They go into water nymph mode and it can be really embarrassing for them.

Be careful hypnotising people near water.

I hypnotised a fat woman in the swimming pool in Los Angeles because she was saying how much she needed to do some exercise but couldn’t be bothered. I thought I’d do her a favour and make exercise really easy for her. But when I hypnotised her she fell over backwards and her head went under. It was terrible – she nearly drowned. Rocky had to help pull her out and we had to put her into the life saving position once she was on dry land again. All her makeup had smudged all over her face and she coughed up lots of water. At least she survived. That one gave me a shock.

If you hypnotise people through the flames of a fire, your eye glare gets distorted so be careful. This can be really dangerous. When I did it, the man I hypnotised wanted to get into the fire. He could have been barbecued. Luckily I persuaded him that it was a very bad idea so he didn’t.

That brings me onto the very important warning that you must be very careful where people are when you hypnotise them. For instance I would never hypnotise someone who was standing on the edge of a cliff or by a busy road – you never know if they’re going to react strangely and move when you first hypnotise them. They might step backwards off the cliff or into the traffic – that sort of thing. I could write a long list of why you should be careful of hypnotising people but I’ll write a short one and you should get the idea.

Be careful of hypnotising drivers, when they’re driving, and pilots of planes or helicopters and captains of ships etc.

Be careful of hypnotising people holding dangerous things. For instance butchers holding knives, guards holding fierce dogs, police holding guns, old ladies holding umbrellas or heavy handbags. Of course sometimes you will just have to hypnotise on the spot but just beware that if you do it wrong that weapon they are holding can be used against you.

Hypnotising animals

Obviously this is good fun but just be careful because animals with teeth can be very scary if they aren’t hypnotised properly. It is lovely though to hypnotise lions and make them cuddly. You can hypnotise elephants to do dog tricks and mice to run in circles and roll on the floor or climb into matchboxes. When you hypnotise animals you have to work out a way of explaining what you want them to do. That is quite difficult…. Easy if you speak lion or elephant or mouse. Difficult if you don’t.

Remember that you probably don’t want a lot of attention if you are hypnotising people, so don’t ask them to scream at the top of their voices or do something that will have them arrested. To be a responsible hypnotist you should always make sure that you are around to bring a person out of the trance that you put them in. If they are miles away in a police station you can’t get to them… unless you hypnotise a few policemen. Generally anyway you don’t want to make people do things that make them get into trouble as this is not very nice… (unless of course they deserve a bit of a punishment like Adderstone did).

I have found that hypnotism is best when it is used to help people. It’s brilliant for curing bad habits like smoking, over-eating, fear of flying, fear of making friends, that sort of thing. And as a hypnotist it always feels so nice to be useful like this.

Lastly, remember that you can also hypnotise yourself.

I like the hypnotic saying that goes,

‘Every day in every way I get better and better and better.’”

Molly Moon is an enjoyable book, though I must say that I might like her pug better than her. She’s fairly rad, of course, being able to hypnotise people, and, later, do crazy things like time travel and stop time. (This is the first book in a 6 book series) Her best friend Rocky is also pretty awesome. I need to reread the rest of this series, I must say, because while this first book is entirely necessary for setting the stage for the rest of the series, I do believe that I prefer the later on ones when her hypnotism-skillz are already developed more fully, because she manages to do some pretty awesome stuff that way. I think at one point she turns into a ladybug maybe? When she realizes that she can switch bodies with others sort of? Don’t take my word for it, like I said I need to do some rereading here, but I’m pretty sure that happens, which in itself is a valid reason to read the books. 😉 Have a great week!

Hello! Today I’m doing something a little different: an author feature on Jessica Day George, one of my favorite middle grade authors. And just to put it out there early, I will not be posting next week because I will be out of town with no wifi for the President’s Holiday. Anyways, here’s a little about Mrs George

Official Story:

Jessica Day George earned a BA in Humanities/Comparative Literature from Brigham Young University, where she enjoyed classes in Pottery and Old Norse, and dutifully forced herself to take Algebra and Biology. Originally from Idaho, she now resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband and three young children.

More Info:

It’s all about the books. Friends, family, school, “real jobs”, they were just obstacles to be tackled so that I could return to my true love: books. All I have ever wanted in this world is to read and write books. My criteria for choosing a purse is that it must be able to fit a paperback book inside. I took books on my honeymoon, and bought more while we were there. I picked my major because it looked like I would get to read a lot of books, and also I thought it would provide me with interesting background information for my own books (which it did). From the time I was twelve on up, I told people that I wanted to be a writer. When they said, “So, you’ll teach and then maybe try to write a book?” I would just shake my head. No, I was a writer, and that was all I wanted to do. So over the years until I got published, I lived in Idaho, in New Jersey and Delaware, and in Utah, because it didn’t matter. I could read and write anywhere. I’ve worked at a wedding invitation factory (Bet you didn’t know they made them in big scary factories, did you?), at a video store (back at the birth of DVD), at libraries and bookstores, and even been an office lady at a school while I waited to get published. I knew that I would be published eventually, because . . . well, I just had to be.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have other interests. I took eight years of German, four of Norwegian, and even studied Old Norse so that I could read the great Viking sagas in the original language. I knit like a maniac: hats, scarves, sweaters, dog sweaters, socks, felted purses, you name it. I play the piano and viola, love to travel and to watch movies.

But mostly, it’s about the books.

She has written and published eleven books in three different series, plus a stand alone novel. My favorite series of hers is probably the Dragon Slippers series, but I also love her fairy tale retellings, though those are geared at a bit of a higher age level than her other series. Her third series is about a girl who lives in a castle that’s sorta alive… or, anyways, it changes a lot and it sometimes complies to the wishes of the main character.

As you can tell, Mrs. George is a very creative and inspired author, and I hope you have the pleasure of enjoying her books!

 

For Claire Boucher, life is all about skating on the frozen cow pond and in the annual Maple Show right before the big pancake breakfast on her family’s maple farm. But all that changes when Claire is offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — a scholarship to train with the elite skaters in Lake Placid. Tossed into a world of mean girls on ice, where competition is everything, Claire soon realizes that her sweet dream come true has sharper edges than she could have imagined. Can she stand up to the people who want her to fail and find the courage to decide which dream she wants to follow?

I’ve read this book so many times since I first picked it up years ago, because it’s just so cute, inspiring, and relatable.

“Claire smiled a little. “I know.” She was stronger. And she’d choose her own dreams from now on. She had a bunch of them to get started on. “Thank you for everything.”

Claire wants to do what she loves, which is ice skating, but to get there she has to push through all the pettiness and competition of teenage girls. Claire is great, loves her family, and is a loyal friend, and her best friend who loves to read paranormal YA books is pretty funny too. Oh- and just to put it out there, don’t worry if you know nothing about skating, because I love it, and I can basically guarantee that I know even less than you.

Some quotes about it:

“For fans of ice skating this book is nothing short of a dream come true. If I don’t see a copy of this book in every single ice skater’s gym bag by the end of December I will eat my proverbial hat. But there’s a lot of rich writing at work here, above and beyond the obvious plot elements. It’s got a relatable heroine, three-dimensional villains, a rags to riches element, some convincingly exhausting sequences, and an ending that will probably catch a couple folks by surprise…”

~Betsy Bird, Fuse #8 Blog at School Library Journal

“Claire’s self-doubt and inner turmoil over whether to continue with the Silver Blades after her scholarship ends is both realistic and sensitively depicted. The solidarity among some of the skaters is nicely contrasted with the mind games and meanness of others. The addition of a light romance and the satisfying conclusion will appeal to those who have skating fantasies of their own.”

~Kirkus

“One moment Claire Boucher is tapping the sap from her family’s maple trees; the next she is plucked from obscurity by a coach who sees her skate in the Maple Show and offers a scholarship in Lake Placid…. Even those who don’t know their double toe loops from their single salchows will enjoy …reading about what it takes to make it on the ice.”

~Booklist

Have a great week everyone!