★ 12/01/2013
School Library Journal - Audio
The fast-paced first volume in Korman’s Hypnotists series introduces some historical conspiracies worthy of Dan Brown. In Korman’s world, famous events from the Hindenberg disaster to the Lewis and Clark expedition were influenced by hypnotists, people with a genetic gift that allows them to control others’ minds. Twelve-year-old Jackson “Jax” Opus is starting to notice that people sometimes do what he says without thinking about it, and that he has strange visions when this happens. After a run-in with a stage hypnotist, he is recruited to the Sentia Institute, run by Dr. Elias Mako, friend to politicians and movie stars alike. Jax starts training his natural skills, but an encounter with another hypnotist, former con artist Axel Braintree, persuades him that there’s more to both his own family history and to Sentia. Korman (the Swindle series) delivers an entertaining mix of intense action and goofy fun; he isn’t afraid to raise the stakes when necessary, and he makes the moral murkiness of mind control apparent to characters and readers alike. The ending wraps up some loose ends, but leaves plenty for future books. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)
12/02/2013
Publishers Weekly - Audio
-"Pure fun from top to bottom." -- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
-"Korman's fast moving, feel-good suspense novel will have middle schoolers, especially boys, turning the pages." -- VOYA
-"Korman again knocks it out of the park . . . interesting, full of humor, and good fun." -- VOYA
-"Goofball-funny and addictive." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS
Jax Opus does not understand the power of his color-changing eyes, but he cannot deny it, either. He is unable to explain the strange things that seem to happen when he focuses on people he encounters. There is the basketball player from the other team who seems to throw the game when faced off against Jax. There is the doctor who almost jumps out of a window in response to the teen’s flip and casual remark. The examples are piling up fast, with increasingly high stakes. Then a hypnotist comes to school, and Jax counteracts his parlor trick. Soon, Jax is being recruited to learn at the prestigious and mysterious Sentia, under its equally mysterious leader, Dr. Mako. When Axel Braintree tracks him down and suggests that Dr. Mako’s intentions are dangerous, Jax refuses to believe him. As the evidence mounts, Jax comes to realize the truth of Braintree’s accusations. But will he be able to prevent the power-mad doctor’s success? Book one of “The Hypnotists” series. Reviewer: Heidi Hauser Green AGERANGE: Ages 9 to 13.
Children's Literature - Heidi Hauser Green
09/01/2013
An unsettling premise and wildly escalating threats jump-start Korman's newest series. Jackson Opus is uneasy about his ability to, sometimes, make people do exactly what he tells them to--until he's invited to join a training program at the mysterious Sentia Institute, where he learns that he's an uncommonly gifted member of a rare but not unknown breed of natural-born "mind-benders." Initially dazzled by the glittering promises of world-changing powers offered by Sentia's founder, Elias Mako, Jax soon gets the feeling that Mako has a hidden agenda. That feeling becomes a certainty after Jax meets the Sandman's Guild, an underclass of benders struggling with the ability's addictive lure, and records a video for, supposedly, experimental purposes that hypnotizes anyone who sees it. Despite such tongue-in-cheek highlights as a guild meeting modeled on an AA support group and a "Sorcerer's Apprentice"–style scene in the wake of a string of badly worded hypnotic commands, the story takes a suspenseful turn. Jax discovers that his own parents have been implanted with a deadly posthypnotic command to keep him in line and that Mako has "bent" the leading U.S. presidential candidate. There's action aplenty, and belly laughs too--though the implication that benders have played significant roles in history and are among us now may leave readers feeling queasy. (Suspense fantasy. 10-13)
