Customer Reviews

The Misadventures of Millicent Madding #1: Bully-Be-Gone

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am an avid book reader, and so I can be choosey. Though I had not heard of this book, when my relative gave it to me, I read it non-stop - it was that exciting, interesting, funny (in a way) and just plain great. You really, in a way, start to feel sorry for Millecent Madding and all her misadventures. And that's just in one book. The ending really leaves you wanting to know her next misadventure.Though it is targeted towards middle grade readers, I think anyone would still find it nice, as in the story's plot. I cannot wait untill the next book in the series comes out! Way to go, Brian!
P.S.-I like the illustrations on the cover!

This was a 'fun read'. The characters were vivid and entertaining - even the supporting people had enough of a 'background' to be interesting ie the school principal Mr. Pennystacker who had a Saint Bernard called Mad Dog when he was a child. Millicent is an inventor-in-training and misadventures are a natural result of her best efforts to help others. I enjoyed the subplot with her Uncle and lost Aunt as well - it allowed the author to introduce some of the best characters in the book. I hope there will be further 'Misadventures' to come!

While Brian Tacang's debut book targets middle school readers, he has certainly captured the heart of this 40-something Wunderkind wannabe. This book isn't just for those who have ever had the misfortune of being bullied because they are a brain or artistically gifted. Young and old minds alike are engaged with the Wunderkind elite, and other wonderfully wacky characters in magical Masonville, as Millicent's latest invention wreaks havoc and the amnesiac Felicity tries to find her way home. The author takes the reader on a precarious, often hilarious, non-stop journey through a place that is imaginatively wrought with old-fashioned sentiment and modern day diversity. Adept descriptive narration, cleverness and momentum carry the reader to an ending that is warm and fuzzy--and especially inspiring to those of us who need a little courage to become more of who we are.

I found Millicent Madding to be funny yet poignant. A touch of suspense and great imaginative detail give the book a special flair. While I am sure kids will love it, I am over sixty years old, and I loved it, too!

Although this book is intended to the age of 8-12, as an adult, I really enjoyed reading this book. It is incredibly creative, witty, and charming. I was also very impressed with the author's inventive mind. The book takes you into an imaginary world, which makes it difficult to put it down. I highly recommend this book to all ages.

Millicent Madding and the other members of the Wunderkind Club at Winifred T. Langley Middle School face the problems of many over achievers who are spurned and tormented by the "in" set. Millicent invents a surefire solution only to have it backfire with hilarious results. Young people and adults alike will fall in love with Millicent and her foibles. Can't wait for Millicent Madding #2.

Walk into a library or a bookstore. Remove from your pocket a small stone. Close your eyes, spin around, and hurl the projectile any which way (making certain no one is standing around and that there isn't any delicate glass about). Now go see what book the stone hit. If you happened to be in the children's room, particularly in the fiction section, you probably had a pretty good chance of hitting something meaningful, depressing, or meaningful AND depressing. And let me tell you, there is no sure-fire method of turning a kid off of reading than making them read only books that fit into those two categories. As a children's librarian I've been reading a ton of children's books published in 2006 and I am SICK of books that aren't any fun. So when "The Misadventures of Millicent Madding" (adventure one = "Bully-Be-Gone") fell into my lap I didn't know what to think. The Amy Vangsgard cover art kind of turned me off. Clay is cool but not always appropriate for a fiction cover. Still, it sounded... fun. And I needed fun. I needed fun badly. So after reading this book cover to cover, I can say this of "Bully-Be-Gone". It is every bit as fun as the premise suggests and it is bound to be dearly beloved by scores of wide-eyed kidlets. All around amusing.

If you are smart and attend school in some fashion, there is one fact of life you have to acknowledge. Bullies. They're everywhere. Well young Millicent Madding is smart, but she isn't resigned to a life of dodging this scourges of the public school hallways. She's just invented a whole new kind of face cream. It's called Bully-Be-Gone and it's supposed to affect your average bully's sense of smell, thereby repelling them. The problem is, Millicent's still new to this whole inventing game. She's had some bad luck in the past and her fellow members of The Wunderkind Club (a group of the smartest kids of Masonville) are wary of trusting this new invention. But try it they do and the results aren't exactly what Millicent thought they might be. Now Bully-Be-Gone is attracting love-struck bullies rather than repelling them and Millicent's in a fix. Add in her long-lost aunt trecking across the country in an ancient wedding gown, a tale of contortion and cooking, two parents lost in time, and an uncle who's hair color and hair style changes every day... well let's just say that the town of Masonville may never quite be the same again.

Sometimes I can pinpoint a moment when a book has won me over. Often the book as a whole gains my love, but once in a great while there's a single defining turn of phrase or image. For me, a children's librarian, it was page 28. Sweet sweet page 28. On that page we meet the local town librarian, Miss Ogelvie. She simultaneously fulfills your normal librarian stereotypes (bespectacled, prudent, unmarried, etc.) and pounds them into dust. Consider this sentence: "Closer inspection revealed that Miss Ogelvie had, through years of lifing books, developed a rather intimidating frame. Her arms, especially, were thick and strong - a fact she played up by having had them tattooed with the faces of literary figures like Shakespeare and Toni Morrison". Any book that contains a character who has the author of "Beloved" imprinted in ink on their forearm has my instantaneous love.

But heroic librarians aside (I haven't even mentioned the legend of Goody Constance Madding, which is faaaabulous) it's Tacang's writing here that sets the book apart from the pack. It balances the author's story with amusing details here and there. Tacang isn't going for deeply held emotional resonance, but he still manages to hit meaningful chords throughout his storyline. There could also have been a danger of going too wild with this book. Too wacky. The back cover promises scores of kooky crazy kids and adults with everything from human cannonballs to rebel librarians, and they're all here, true. But at the same time, this isn't another "Surviving the Applewhites" or "Pure Dead Magic". The wacked-out nuttiness is great, but the author never overplays his hand. It's a delicate balance all the more impressive when you consider how well it ties together.

And by the way, the inventions in this book aren't your average half-hearted "Freddy and the French Fries" lame-o inventions. Every single one is an invention that should exist (with the possible exception of the gloves that clip your fingernails) and that anyone would love to own. I would like to personally suggest to the world that we take Tacang's suggestion of a carpet with Autosuck Technology and make it exist. It makes so much sense! "You simple flipped a switch and the carpet retracted dirt, in a sense. Dust, soil, and other small debris were sucked through the carpet and into a plastic bag". Honestly, why isn't this being installed in homes everywhere already? Hello, patent office...

If I have any objection with this book, it concerns its ending. With all her friends hating her for their hard-to-shake new bully buddies, Millicent needs to find a cure, stop the bullies, and get on her uncle's good side by the story's end. She does so, but it's done in such a sudden madcap way that it feels to the viewer that they've suddenly run smack dab into the literary equivalent of a brick wall. A little more time spent on wrapping up stories (and not having her friends forgive her QUITE so suddenly) would have given "Millicent Madding" far more believable closure. Ah well. Can't have everything, I guess.

Child inventors have been gracing the pages of children's books at least since Homer Price "fixed" that old donut machine in 1943. By and large, however, the inventors have been boys. Now Millicent Madding has come to kick butt and take names. Alongside another 2006 title, "Roxie and the Hooligans", by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, these two books look at bullies and find incredibly creative ways of dealing with them. Kids everywhere should approve. Enjoyable reading with more than its fair share of intelligence.

Great book! it is an awesome book that most anyone can enjoy! Buy it and be surprisingly pleased!

PS- my title is not just nonsense- it is actually an abreviation for something

A Children's Classic! My whole family loved it.
This story had me laughing out loud, wondering if I could get Masonville library card, and starving for a plate of Chocolate and Marshmallow Bunk Beds and Swiss Cheese Moon Rocks.
I haven't enjoyed a children's book this much since I first read "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" thirty years ago!