Molly Moon is just plain miserable. She lives in a dirty orphanage with a mean matron and kids that bully her. She feels ugly and unloved and not in any way special. That all changes the day she visits the library (great things always happen there!) and discovers a mysterious book about hypnotism. After reading the book, Molly discovers that with a flash of her dazzling eyes, she can make people do anything she wants. Molly’s life is about to get much, much better! “So far in life, Molly had drawn a short straw. Now she was going to get what was due to her … She felt sure that with hypnotism under her belt, she’d never be short of money again. And as for people, Molly decided there and then that from now on, no one would push her or pinch her or boss her or bully her or ignore her. She was going to be somebody now and the world better watch out, because a new, shiny Molly Moon was about to burst through the ether and dazzle it.” Watch out world, here comes the new and improved Molly Moon! Author: Georgia Byng
This 550 page novel has a big surprise once you open it…the fact that many of the pages are pictures! It’s a little bit like reading, and then turning the pages like a little movie, and then reading some more. The pictures are drawn from interesting angles and perspectives and are as much fun as the story. It is not a pictures book, but an illustrated novel, like a comic book or graphic novel.
12 year-old Hugo is an orphan living in a train station in Paris, but he doesn’t live out in the bustle of the station, he lives in the walls! Hugo is an appretice to the clock keeper, who happens to be Hugo’s uncle, but the uncle has disappeared leaving Hugo to tend the clocks. Afraid of being discovered, Hugo continues to do his uncle’s job collecting his uncle’s paychecks, even though he can’t cash them. Hugo scavenges for food and sometimes has to steal. Hugo has a big job just to survive alone, but in his free time, Hugo enjoys working on a project begun by his father. He tinkers with a mechanical man, called an automaton (a robot), trying to get it to work. The small mechanical parts of the automaton are like the parts in the clock…each piece fitting with the next piece to make the machine work correctly. Hugo’s life is like one of these mechanical pieces… he just doesn’t know where his piece fits with the next…until he meets a girl and a crotchety toy shop owner…then the pieces of his life begin to fit together. Author & Illustrator: Brian Selznick
Earth has been invaded by the Boov and 11 year-old Gratuity is not pleased. Her mother is missing and there have been some serious changes going on. All Americans are being forced to relocate to “Human Reserves” in Florida. “One state for three hundred million people. There were going to be some serious lines for the bathrooms.”
Resistant to taking Boov transport, Gratuity grabs her cat named “Pig”, packs her rebellious spirit and hops in the family car to head to Florida and find her mother. “…I decided to drive instead, and got shot at, and later went over an embankment because the highways had been destroyed. Pig and I hung out in a convenience store, and I hid from A Boov name j.Lo, but then I trapped him, and let him go when he promised to fix my car. Which now hovers instead of rolls. And has big hoses and fins. Everybody on the same page? Great.” A non-stop cross country road trip with a cat and a misfit alien, who has his own reasons for befriending a human girl who is about to save the world. Author: Adam Rex
13 year-old Otto finds himself spirited away to a secret school hidden inside a volcano. The school is designed to train supervillains, that’s right, a school for the bad guys. The kids at the school are the most athletic, the most computer savvy, and the smartest in the world. They are also the most daring young hackers, thieves and cons. Soon after arriving Otto realizes that leaving is not an option. Along with his new friends: a marital arts expert, a computer genius and a world famous jewel thief, can Otto achieve what has never been done before and break out of H.I.V.E.? Author: Mark Walden
Don’t miss H.I.V.E. #2, #3, and #4.Also try the kids of S.T.O.R.M. (Science and Technology to Over-Rule Misery) or The Trackers – all teams of highly intelligent kids with great gadgets.
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