Molly Moon Books In Order

Publication Order of Molly Moon Books

Molly Moon is a series of books authored by British film producer, actress, illustrator and children’s and young adult writer Georgia Byng. The first novel in the series and the best known of her works is Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism, published in 2002. Byng went on to publish 5 other highly popular titles in the Molly Moon series between 2002 and 2012. The series of novels feature Molly Moon as the chief protagonist who is a mind reader, master hypnotist, time traveler, and an orphan. The series follows the eleven-year-old protagonist as she discovers just how much she can do with her special hypnosis skills. As would be expected of such a young girl, she uses her gifts to a variety of things that would be classified as fun and adventurous including time travel, morphing into animal form and back, sneaking herself into competitions and foreign countries, and reading minds. However, the most important part of her special talents is that her special talents and powers are used for good, in helping to prevent the evil from getting into power, or helping the poor get justice. Writing the novels from the perspective of an eleven year old, Byng does a very good job at expounding such profound themes as injustice and the role of children in fostering good, in an evil and unjust world. She does this while writing a fascinating tales that provides lighthearted insights into the nature of hypnosis.

According to the author of the Molly Moon series, the very idea of the novels was to present a child that was powerful yet retaining that fun and adventurous nature that is the essence of a child. While the series is generally targeted at children and young adults, the books have achieved such widespread popularity that they have come to be read by adults. The novels are known for their wit, charm, and exotic adventures, which one just cannot get enough of. The novels have been compared to J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series, with Lady Georgia Byng being touted as one the most credible challengers of the renowned Rowling to emerge in a long time. Given the popularity of the first novel, Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism, was adapted into a film by the same name in 2015. The movie starred Raffey Cassidy as Molly Moon and Dominic Monaghan as the evil criminal posing as a hypnosis professor. It has also been the recipient of a number of top literary awards including 2007 Nevada Young Readers Award, 2007 Grand Canyon Reader Award, and the 2005 Massachusetts Children’s Book Award.

When we are first introduced to Molly Moon, she is an orphan living in an orphanage in the small town of Briersville in England. Her life could best be described as plain and boring as she has few friends save for Rocky Scarlet a fellow orphan, and a pug she has named Petula. Byng describes Molly as an ordinary looking girl with green eyes, wobbly knees, and a large potato like nose. She often has to take beatings from a snobby orphan girl known as Hazel, and Ms. Adderstone who runs the orphanage with an iron fist. However, this state of affairs makes Moon the perfect protagonist, as she starts right from the very bottom before she gets her hypnotic powers. As a bottom of the pile, ordinary, and unpopular girl, she is best placed to walk in the shoes of the downtrodden who are the persons whose rights she fights for throughout the series. While she does not inspire any admiration from her drab appearance, she has a heart that is full of diamonds, which is why it is poetic justice for her to find the book of hypnotism. Though she is powerful without measure, she comes across as a great person that anyone would like to be friends with.

The first novel of the series, Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism starts with Molly getting into a fight with her best friend Rocky, which results in her heading for the school library to find something to read. By pure luck, she finds a book on hypnotism stored in the wrong section and sneaks out of the library with it, to read at home. She soon finds that two chapters in the book Long Distance Hypnosis and Voice Only Hypnosis are missing. Soon after, her best friend is adopted by an American family, and determined to get back together with her friend Molly, starts practicing the lessons from the book. After becoming proficient at hypnosis she enters a singing competition where she manages to fool the audience that she is talented singer thus earning the money needed to fly to the US. But a mysterious professor of hypnosis that goes by the name of Simon Nockman, has followed her to New York, determined to take the book from her. In a quest to do good with her new found powers, Molly Moon is in a quest to turn the criminal Nockman into a good man while ensuring that she does not fall victim to the abuse of her powers. In a fast-paced narrative that goes from the orphanage in London to the mean streets of New York, Byng writes a tale of full of twists and turns that will leave the reader on the edge of their seat right to the very end.

The second novel in the Molly Moon series is the highly popular Molly Moon Stops the World. Molly Moon has just come back to the US and is in Los Angeles to stop an evil businessman who is using hypnosis to make himself president of the United States. However, Primo Cell, the businessman is an ultra-strong hypnotist that Molly just might not be able to stop. With her motley crew that includes her ever present dog, Petula, her best friend Rocky and her mentor Lucy, she sets out to find how to break Primo’s hypnotist powers. She soon learns that Primos’ powers can be broken by a special password which she can obtain using her time traveling powers. In a tale that takes the reader through action packed adventure scenes, this book will leave any fantasy novel reader starry eyed and begging for more. Byng is an expert at the making of double helix plots that keep the plot moving fast throughout the novel. The revelations that come out about Molly makes for some fascinating background on the story that culminates in an explosive finale.