Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism  

Have you ever wanted to hypnotize your parents to do something for you?  Molly Moon actually can!  Molly is the main character in Georgia Byng's series "The Adventures of Molly Moon" and learned how to hypnotize people and animals from a book she found in the library.  Molly and her best friend, Rocky, are both orphans living in a cruelly operated orphanage until Rocky is adopted and whisked away from London to go live in New York.  Molly, using her hypnotic powers, tries to track down Rocky but is blackmailed by a man who wants her to rob a one of the richest banks in America!  Georgia Byng tells this story in a very catching way that made me want to stay up late into the night reading about the escapades of Molly, her dog Petunia, and Rocky.  I enjoyed reading Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism (the first book in the series) partially because it takes place in both England, where I've never been, and America, which I am very familiar with. Some other books in the Molly Moon series are Molly Moon Stops Time and Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure. I am sure that almost everyone who reads these marvelous books by Georgia Byng will love them!                                                 

Midnight for Charlie Bone 

Midnight for Charlie Bone is a magical book in which Charlie Bone, a boy that is about eleven or twelve years old, discovers that he has the power to go into pictures and hear what the people in them are saying. Unfortunately, Charlie's evil great aunts send him off to a sort of boarding school (the children are only allowed to go home on the weekends) for children like him, who are desended from the Red King, the great magician king who lived long ago.  There, Charlie figures out that all of the desendents of the Red King have taken sides - good against bad. He jjoins the good side and tries to get rid of the evil others. Jenny Nimmo is a wonderful author, and she explains Charlie's feelings very well. The setting is perfect - a boy's father has gone missing, the boy dicovers that he has magical powers, and he is unwillingly sent off to a strange school. I enjoyed every single word of Midnight for Charlie Bone! The other books in the Charlie Bone series are Charlie Bone and the Time Twister, Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy, Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors, and Charlie Bone and the Hidden King. The sixth book will hopefully be coming out soon!                                    

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

In this wonderful fantasy written by C.S. Lewis, Lucy Pevensie magically travels to a land called Narnia, where she meets a very kind faun named Mr.Tumnus who explains that Narnia is under a spell cast by the evil White Witch that makes it always winter in Narnia. Only four human children will be able to overthrow the White Witch and become the rightful rulers of Narnia. When Lucy returns home, she tells her brothers and sister about this, but they only laugh at her.  However, a few days later, all of the Pevensie children are transported to Narnia, where it is said that they must fight in a great battle against the White Witch.  C.S.Lewis wrote this book with a wonderful with a wonderful imagination, and the enchantment of Narnia will catch you up and pull you along.  Although The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the second book in The Chronicles of Narnia, it explains quite a bit about this series, and the books don't have to be read in order.       

Cornelia and the Audacious Escapedes of the Somerset Sisters

Cornelia and the Audacious Escapedes of the Somerset Sisters, written by Leslie M.M. Blume, is a wonderful book about a lonely girl named Cornelia who almost never sees her parents, who are alwaus off playing at piano concerts. Cornelia befriends her new elderly neighbor, a kind woman named Virginia Somerset. Virginia tells Cornelia about all of the wonders she and her sisters saw as young women traveling the world. Now, Cornelia has something to look forward to each day instead of hiding herself behind long and complicated words that not many people understand. Virginia helps Cornelia to understand her mother and to make some friends. Reading Cornelia and the Audacious Escapedes of the Somerset Sisters helped me to learn new and facinating words. I thoroughly enjoyed it.  

note: Leslie M.M. Blume has a blog that talks more about her writing! 

Gregor the Overlander

How would you feel if you and your baby sister were suddenly transported through an air vent in the laundry room to an underground world? Gregor and his two-year-old sister Margaret, nicknamed Boots, came out of the air vent of their apartment's laundry room in a mass of tunnels filled with giant cockroaches who believe that Boots is a princess. The cockroaches lead Gregor and Boots to an enormous underground city where it is discovered that Gregor is the legendary "Overland Warrior" that appears in many of the prophecies foretold by Bartholemew of Sandwich, the founder of this underground city called "Regailia". Apparently, Gregor will play a big part in the huge war between the humans and the giant, talking rats. He is offered a sword to fight with, but refuses and is unsure what to do. Suzanne Collins is a very talented author. Gregor the Overlander, along with the three other books in this series, (Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, The Curse of the Warmbloods, and Gregor and the Marks of Secret) has to be one of my favorite books.

Other really good books:                                                                                                                        

The Sisters Grimm Series by Michael Buckley

Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series by Kathryn Lasky

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson (and anything else written by Eva Ibbotson)

Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer

Septimus Heap Series by Angie Sage

Hermux Tantamoq Trilogy by Michael Hoeye

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan