Millicent Min, Girl Genius (Sid Fleischman Humor Award (Awards)) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "I have been accused of being anal retentive, an over-achiever, and a compulsive perfectionist, like those are bad things..." (more)
Key Phrases: poetry class, Professor Skylanski, Stanford Wong, Coach Gowin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8--Millie, an 11-year-old with a genius IQ, is taking a college poetry class and waiting for her high school senior year. Because she never hesitates to show how much she knows about a particular subject, her peers tend to stay away. Millie's social ineptitude is a cause of concern for her parents. Against her will, she is enrolled in summer volleyball and enlisted to tutor Stanford Wong, a friend of the family. Into this mix enters Emily, a volleyball teammate and typical preteen. The girls become friends but Millie neglects to tell Emily about her genius status. Eventually the truth surfaces and Emily feels betrayed. Millie thinks that Emily is angry because she is smart, never realizing that the betrayal comes from her lack of trust in their friendship. While some readers will have trouble identifying with Millie, her trials and tribulations result in a story that is both funny and heartwarming. A universal truth conveyed is that honesty and acceptance of oneself and of others requires a maturity measured not by IQ but by generosity of spirit.--Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK
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From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Certified genius Millicent Min has problems. Sure, her parents have finally consented to let her take a college poetry class over the summer (even though Millie is not yet 12). But it turns out college kids aren't her peers--they're as dumb and lazy as her nemesis, Stanford. If Millie can just keep her brilliance a secret from Emily, Millie's first real friend, and manage to keep Emily and Stanford from smooching (ick!), things might turn out OK. Yee's first novel examines child prodigies from a refreshing angle, allowing nongeniuses to laugh appreciatively at the ups and downs of being a whiz kid. Millie's pretentious voice grows tiresome after a while, but Yee does an excellent job of showing both Millie's grown-up brain and her decidedly middle-school problems. Even if they can't relate to her mastery of Latin, most kids will readily follow as Millie struggles through a world where she's smarter than everyone but still sometimes clueless. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books; 2nd printing edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439425190
• ISBN-13: 978-0439425193
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #759,060 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart and Funny "Genius", October 5, 2003

By	Little Willow (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

The debut novel Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee is an absolute riot. Millicent is eleven years old - and recently completed eleventh grade. Over the summer, she plans to take college courses and (unhappily) tutor Stanford, a boy who drives her up a wall. Her mother, thinking she needs more of a social life with kids her own age, enrolls her in a summer volleyball team. There, she meets a girl who recently moved to town and does not know of Millicent's collegiate status. What's a smart girl to do?

This hilarious book teaches young kids and adults like everywhere that it is okay to be smart. Millicent may feel much older than she is, mentally, but chronologically, she is still a kid. By the end of the summer, she is a little more comfortable in her own skin and proud of who she is and what she's accomplished.

Pop culture tidbit: The audio book is read by Keiko Agena, known as Lane on Gilmore Girls.

I highly recommend this book to kids of all ages. (You too, parents and teachers.) Kids reading comedic realistic fiction such as the Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary, the Alice McKinley series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor or the Judy Moody series by Megan McDonald will certainly adore Millicent Min. I hope that Yee writes more tales, if not of Millicent, then of others. She has a real knack.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mrs. Gowin Rules!, September 27, 2003

By	Margie Mitchell (Salinas, California) - See all my reviews

I really enjoyed reading this book. It made me laugh; it made me cry. It made me see things through the eyes of a young person again. Millicent, blessed and cursed with being a child genius, needs something that we all take for granted -- a friend. When Millicent thinks she has finally found someone, Emily, who is willing to be her friend she stops at nothing to keep her friendship going. Meanwhile, she's forced into tutoring the one person with whom she doesn't want to be friends, Stanford. To further complicate matters, Emily and Stanford develop a romantic relations of their own that makes for some interesting plot twists and ironic scenes. In the end, Emily finds true friendship, although in the place she least expected to find it. Henrietta Gowin, my favorite character, really has little to do with the story but that name, Henrietta Gowin, rings of sophistication. Her character must have been inspired by an exceptional person.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Silly Milli!, September 27, 2003

A Kid's Review

Millicent Min is a good, no great book to read! Not only is it fun filled and funny but it's loaded with little pieces of advice that are very true thanks to the wonderful author Lisa Yee. It's about this very smart girl who has no friends because she is always critizing and correcting them but then her mother signs her up (against her will) for the dreaded volleyball team. There she finally makes a friend, Emily, but Emily doesn't know Milli's secret of being a college student at the age of eleven. Will Millicent tell Emily? And if she does will Emily still be friends? Find out by reading the book.

I've heard that her book is so great that they're going to make it in Italian and it's already out on audio tape! What luck for a first time book! Congrads Mrs. Yee