Hypnotized. (Orca Currents). Don Trembath. Victoria, BC: Orca, 2007. 112 pp., pbk. & cl., $9.95 (pbk.), $16.95 (cl.). ISBN 978-1-55143-705-7 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-55143-707-1 (cl.). Grades 5-9 / Ages 10-14. Review by Kallie George. **½  /4

excerpt:

I’m just about to look for something to eat when Phil comes running upstairs and asks me what I want Alexa to do.

This is not a question I’m used to answering. “Come again?”

“She’s locked in,” he says, his eyes wide. “She’s hypnotized. I did it. She’s down there with this totally serene look on her face. It’s unbelievable.”

I’m not hungry anymore.

I bolt downstairs. I have never seen my sister look serene before.

Hypnotized, by Don Trembath, is one of the latest in the “Orca Currents,” a series of short, high-interest novels for reluctant readers aged 10 to 14. Hypnotized does its job. Although it is not a particularly profound novel, it is interesting enough to read from start to finish without putting down. By the end of chapter two, Rufus’s best friend, Phil, has hypnotized Rufus’s mean older sister, Alexa. As expected, Rufus and Phil begin to order Alexa around. She has to be nice. She has to cook them pancakes. She even has to act as if she’s ten years older and from the future.

     The tables turn, however, when Phil forgets how to work his hypnotic magic and the spell is broken. How will Alexa react when she finds out what she was forced to do? A fun and easy read, Hypnotized, although not “mesmerizing,” is a worthwhile addition to any bookshelf.

Recommended.

Kallie George is currently completing her Masters of Children’s Literature at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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