Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism
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| Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism | |
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| Author | Georgia Byng |
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| Cover artist | Amy Ryan |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Molly Moon |
| Genre(s) | Children's novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins, Macmillan Children's Books |
| Publication date | 2002 |
| Media type | print (paperback) |
| Pages | 371 |
| ISBN | 0-330-39985-3 |
| Followed by | Molly Moon Stops the World |
Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism is the first book in a series written by Georgia Byng
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Molly Moon,an orphan that is living at Hardwick House Orphanage in England, is living "boring and plain" life with her best friend Rocky Scarlet (also an orphan). She is usually harassed by Ms. Adderstone, the woman in charge of the orphanage, and Hazel, a snobby orphan girl. During a cross-country race at school, she and Rocky have a fight and she storms away to a library in town. As she walks in, she finds a man yelling at the librarian about a book he ordered, but ignores him. While looking in a curious compartment of the restricted section, she finds a book on hypnotism, placed in the wrong section because the H was ripped out off the front cover. Intrigued, she steals it and takes it home, reading and studying it. Curiously, she finds that chapters 7 and 8 ("Voice-Only Hypnosis" and "Long Distance Hypnosis") are missing. Not long after her discovery of the book, she finds Rocky has been adopted and taken to America with his new family. Determined to see her friend again, she begins to gain the actual ability to hypnotize from the lessons in her book, after successfully hypnotizing the orphanage dog Petula, along with Ms. Adderstone and their orphanage chef Edna. Using this ability, she wins a large sum of money from a local talent competition and uses it to fly to New York City, taking Petula with her.
Soon after arriving, Molly hypnotizes her way onto Broadway, landing the lead in a musical called "Stars on Mars"... however, she steals this part from a real child star, named Davina Nuttel, in the process. The show is a roaring success, and has caught the attention of a man named Simon Nockman, a supposed "professor" of hypnosis but truly just a criminal (and was, in fact, the same man yelling at the librarian in England, since he was looking for the same hypnotism book Molly found). He theorizes Molly must have obtained the book and learned hypnosis, and formulates a plan. After one performance of "Stars on Mars", Nockman kidnaps Petula, threatening to kill her if Molly does not comply with his orders. He orders her to use her power of hypnosis to rob some rare jewels from a bank for him. Having no choice, Molly agrees. All goes as planned with the robbery until she finds Rocky, who much to her surprise has also learned hypnosis. He had previously stolen and learned from the missing chapters of Molly's hypnotism book, "Long Distance Hypnosis" and "Voice-Only Hypnosis". He uses this talent to hypnotize Nockman into giving up his life of crime and help Molly return the stolen jewels (in hollow garden gnomes that they place all around the city). However, Molly keeps one diamond, which Petula found in her jacket. Molly gives her part in "Stars on Mars" back to Davina, and returns home with Rocky. Out of sympathy for the broken man, she takes Nockman with her. However when they return, they find Ms. Adderstone and Edna have disappeared, leaving the orphanage in chaos. With Nockman's help, Molly and Rocky get the orphanage back into a livable condition, getting Mrs. Trinklebury, the orphanage maid, to run it along with Nockman. The orphanage is re-named 'Happiness House' and the money that Molly earned in New York is used to buy new things and decorate the orphanage. However, it is implied that Nockman has returned to his old ways as he steals a camera, a lollipop and five pounds from children in the orphanage.
At the end of the book, Molly is mysteriously summoned to the library by the librarian, Lucy Logan. Lucy explains that she is the descendant of Professor Logan, the man who originally wrote Molly's hypnotism book, and is a skilled hypnotist herself. She had purposely hypnotized Molly into finding Professor Logan's hypnotism book and keeping it for a month. Now, Molly must return it.
In an epilogue, it is revealed what happened to Ms. Adderstone and Edna; Ms. Adderstone left to become a pilot, and Edna is now an Italian chef.
[edit] Main Characters
- Molly Moon
- Rocky Scarlet
- Petula the Pug
- Agnes Adderstone
- Edna
- Lucy Logan
- Mr. Nockman
[edit] Minor Characters
The New Yorkers
- Rixey Bloomey
- Davina Nuttel
- Barry Brag
Orphanage Characters
- Hazel Hackersley
- Cynthia Redmon
- Craig Redmon
- Gordon Boils
- Roger Fibbin
- Gerry Oakly
- Gemma Patel
- Mrs Toadley
- Mrs Trinklebury
[edit] Film
It has been confirmed that there will be film coming out, though the release date is unknown. Fox have bought the film rights, and the producer will be David Heyman of Heydey Films, producer of the Harry Potter movie. Leigh Hall, writer of the film Billy Elliot, has been hired as screenwriter.
[edit] External links
- Meetmollymoon.com - USA official website
- Meetmollymoon.co.uk - UK official website
- Meetmollymoon.com/movie.html
[edit] References
Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng-novel
