Look into my eyes... deep into my eyes. That's how the hypnotists do it, right? Jackson Opus, seventh grader, has been having some weird visions. Sometimes it seems like he's standing outside of himself about oh maybe 30 feet away and the people around him are acting strangely.
It all started with a city bus, moved on to the star player on the opposing basketball team and ended up in a psychiatrist's office with the good doctor happily trying to jump out of his office window on the 33rd floor in New York City. What the heck is going on? Jackson, or Jax for short, and his hilarious sidekick, Tommy, have a mystery on their hands. It gets even more mysterious when Jax's parents agree to enroll him at Sentia and there with the guiding hand of Dr. Elias Mako, Jax discovers his amazing powers. He can hypnotize people and make them do whatever he wants.
Only Gordon Korman can deliver a story with this swing of dark and light through the eyes and brains of two twelve year old boys. This one will have you laughing your head off one minute and tensing every muscle as the suspense rises. He knows his reader and probably his own twelve year old alter ego was sitting on his shoulder, whispering one-liners in his ear and worming his way into his brain while he wrote the story.
Jax's powers could be used for good or the not so good. Political intrigue and some major manipulations begin. Who can Jax trust? Does he have what it takes to get himself out of this tangle?
Vintage Korman.
Ages 9-13 232 pages 978-0545503273
Recommended by: Barb
ALSC Tween Recommended Reads https://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/Tween13_RecReadsList.pdf
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The extraordinary mental powers of two family lines come together in a young teen sought by people who want to control his hypnotic skills for evil!
Jax just thought he was lucky, like being elected to Student Council by landslide write-in vote when he didn't even campaign, but when he finds that he can change another's actions by merely thinking it, he realizes that it's something more.
So does the very respected Dr. Mako, who recruits Jax for training in hypnotism with other skilled teens at his Sentia institute.
When Jax discovers that not all "mind-benders" agree with Dr. Mako, he wonders what the kids at Sentia are being trained to do.
Mysterious disappearances, nefarious plots, and the fate of the world spice up Jax's seventh grade year in this first book of The Hypnotists series.
Recommended by: Katy Manck, Librarian-at-Large (retired academic/corporate/school librarian), Gilmer, Texas, USA
