Old Favorite Review: Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Title: Running Out of Time
Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Series: None
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: 1995, republished in 2004

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Goodreads Summary:

Jessie lives with her family in the frontier village of Clifton, Indiana. When diphtheria strikes the village and the children of Clifton start dying, Jessie's mother sends her on a dangerous mission to bring back help. But beyond the walls of Clifton, Jessie discovers a world even more alien and threatening than she could have imagined, and soon she finds her own life in jeopardy. Can she get help before the children of Clifton, and Jessie herself, run out of time?

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My Review:

In elementary/middle school, my favorite author was Margaret Peterson Haddix. All of her books were so different. They were almost always sci-fi/dystopian/thrillers, and I devoured all of the strange new world concepts she presented. Haddix gave the first introduction to what has now become my favorite genre.

I debated which one of Haddix's books to feature for an Old Favorite Review, and decided on one of my favorites, Running Out of Time. Look for some of her other books as Old Favorite Reviews in the future.

When I read this book, the first thing I thought was that the plot was very similar to M. Night Shamalyan's The Village, but with more of an action/adventure feel than horror/thriller. (Well, to be honest, I read this in 5th grade where I probably didn't think that in depth about it, but looking back on it that's why I think now, anyway.)

This is a really fun and intense book, with such a facinating story concept. I really loved it. It was published back in the 90's, so it's a little outdated (I remember thinking it was outdated back in the early 20's!), with the technology and what year the book is set in. But it's still a really awesome book!

I would definitely recommend Running Out Of Time to younger fans who want to get into the dystopian/alternative world-within-a-world type books.

Old Favorite Review: Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism

Title: Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism
Author: Georgia Byng
Publisher: Harper Trophy
Release Date: April 1, 2004
Titles In Series:
Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism
Molly Moon Stops the World
Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure
Molly Moon, Micky Minus, & the Mind Machine
Molly Moon & the Morphing Mystery

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The Review:

The Molly Moon series by Georgia Byng was one of my favorites around the time of 5th or 6th grade. The story revolves around British orphan Molly, who lives in a cruel orphanage where's she's constantly bullied until she discovers a book of Hypnotism in the local library. She reads the book, and very quickly learns how to hypnotize people herself.

Molly uses her new power to go on the ultimate adventure a pre-teen girl could imagine. Of course, there are others out there that want to get a hold of her hypnotism book and use it for less-than-innocent means. Molly is a smart and hilarious girl who uses her wits (along with her pug Petunia) to deflect them and have a fun time, and learn some lessons too.

But hypnotism is only the first book in the series. In each successive book, Molly learns another supernatural power, and consequently deals with others who have the same power and want to use if for their own evil benefits.

There are 5 books in this series (so far), but I only read the first 2 (I didn't even know there were more until sitting down to write this reveiw!). The first book could've been a stand alone though, then it could've been a series of two, and I was amazed to find there were more. I don't know if the sucessors are as good as the first two, because they wrapped up the plot pretty well.

Though it may sound like it, this series is not all just fluff. The plot was so epic and intense in both of these books. The first book revolved around Molly going to New York City and performing on Broadway. In the second book, where she can freeze time, she goes to Los Angeles and gets into the Academy Awards, all while foiling an evil billionaire who has been using hypnotism to make a ton of money. Cheesy at times, yes, but a lot of fun and intense situations.

Being a book about an orphan, one part of the plot is Molly searching for her parents, who she does eventually find, also one of my favorite parts.

I devoured this fun series when I was younger, I read the first two books at least twice if not more. I think if I re-read them, I would enjoy them just as much. This series is Middle Grade, but still awesome. I don't know if the last three books in the series are as good as the first two, but I might have to read them and see for myself.




Preview it from Harper Trophy

"Old Favorite" Reviews

I'm going to start posting a feature occasionally called "Old Favorite Reviews", which is the same thing as a regular book review, except it will be of a book I read in Elementary/Middle School that I loved to death.

I won't be rereading them (usually), the reviews will just be based on my memory from way back when, and therefore they'll probably be a lot shorter. I just want to spread the word about some awesome books I used to love.

Sharing these books are important to me because without them, I never would've loved reading nearly as much as I do now! Most of these books fall into the category of Middle Grade- something I don't read often anymore, but I think is still a very important category to be discussed.

I know a lot of my followers are YA fiction fans, but I also want to encourage younger readers to pick up MG books, and who knows, maybe some older people would like these books too (I know I still love them!).

I hope this is a worthwhile feature. I know I've been wanting to find a way to spread the word about some of my favorite books growing up that still hold a special place in my heart. (Not to be too cheesy or anything!)

It won't be a regular thing- just whenever I feel like posting one. Look for the first review coming soon.

And I even designed a nifty little button to go along with it! This will be posted on every "Old Favorite" Review.