Has anybody ever heard of a series of novels about the child hypnotist named Molly Moon?

The reason I ask is because I had the somewhat amusing pleasure of reading the first of the series a couple of years back. Although the string of books following in the footsteps of the Harry Potter-ish craze - subsequently being turned into film dynasties such as the upcoming Spiderwick Chronicles or even Narnia - there was a fresh, raw quality in the prose of the Molly Moon novel that caught my eye.

Of course, by that I mean it didn’t sound as chock-filled with marketing as the subsequent Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket novels were. Not that I didn’t like them - I waited for The Deathly allows just like everybody else - but from a crazy writer’s point of view, the twists and turns of Molly Moon’s own adventures were far more interesting, since they came from a low fantasy point of view.

Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism introduces a huge chunk of the main cast in one go. Here we get to know the inimitable Molly Moon, her dog Petula, Rocky Scarlet the young singing prodigy, and Lucy Logan, the librarian (who turns out to be more than meets the eye, by the end of the novel). The plot is simple: Molly Moon is scared out of her wits by living in Hardwick House, the orphanage she is in. There’s the fear of being adopted by a horrible family; conversely, there’s the fear of not being adopted at all. This stress provides Molly with the drive to run off during one of the orphanage’s outdoor activities, leading to her discovery of a book about hypnotism.

That one thing about Molly’s hypnotic abilities is what got my attention. While everybody else is trying to outwit evil creatures of magical origins (like boggarts), Molly’s busy trying to hypnotise people to get ahead in life. She gains fame, fortune, and eventually, happiness through her abilities.

The character of Molly’s a lot more realistic - and therefore, more realistically flawed - than Harry Potter, the Grace children, or even the Narnia kids. The only chronicled children’s stories that come close to that personal quality of their personalities would be the children from Lemony Snicket’s books.

Not that the book doesn’t have its own share of troublesome points. Lots of readers might find the rather fast-paced plot a bit unnerving, or the lack of a centralized conflict weird. But the novel makes up for that with a lot of character and charm oozing from the zany storyline and the character of Molly Moon herself.

The books are written by Georgia Byng, and published by Harper Collins.

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