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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2003, 368 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2004, 400 pages
A brilliant story about a determined young girl with big dreams that is sure to mesmerize children and adults alike---prepare to be dazzled! Ages 8+.
Orphan Molly Moon hates living in Hardwick House. For starters, the orphanage is run by hairy-faced Miss Adderstone, who makes Molly clean the toilets with her toothbrush. Mean Hazel Hackersly torments her and to make matters worse, Molly's best friend Rocky has just been adopted and is moving to New York City!
But when Molly stumbles upon a mysterious old book on hypnotism her world is suddenly turned upside down. With a dazzling flash of her bright green eyes, she discovers that she has the amazing power to make people do things – crazy things. There's nothing holding Molly back now, and what better place to begin her adventures than in spectacular New York City as a Broadway superstar?
What Molly doesn't know is that a sinister stranger is following her with dastardly plans of his own...
Chapter One
Molly Moon looked down at her pink, blotchy legs. It wasn't the bathwater that was making them mottled like Spam; they were always that color. And so skinny. Maybe one day, like an ugly duckling turning into a swan, her knock-kneed legs might grow into the most beautiful legs in the world. Some hope.
Molly leaned back until her curly brown hair and her ears were under the water. She stared at the fly-specked yellow paint that was peeling off the wall and at the damp patch on the ceiling where strange mushrooms grew. Water filled her ears and the world sounded foggy and far away.
Molly shut her eyes. It was an ordinary November evening, and she was in a shabby bathroom in a crumbling building called the Hardwick House Orphanage. She imagined flying over it like a bird, looking down at its gray slate roof and its bramble-filled garden. She imagined flying higher until she was looking down on the hillside where Hardwick village lay. Up and up she went until Hardwick...
Bottom-line is it's just a fun-filled, wacky read. The plot's a little sketchy in places, but that really doesn't matter.
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A sweeping epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial Barbados.
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