Millicent Min, Girl Genius - Hardcover

Yee, Lisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0439425190 ISBN 13: 9780439425193

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2003

Synopsis

Who would have thought being smart could be so hard (and so funny)?

Millicent Kwan is having a bad summer. Her fellow high school students hate her for setting the curve. Her fellow 11-year-olds hate her for going to high school. And her mother has arranged for her to tutor Stanford Wong, the poster boy for Chinese geekdom. But then Millie meets Emily. Emily doesn't know Millicent's IQ score. She actually thinks Millie is cool. And if Millie can hide her awards, ignore her grandmother's advice, swear her parents to silence, blackmail Stanford, and keep all her lies straight, she just might make her first friend.
What's it going to take? Sheer genius.

About this title

About the Author

Lisa Yee’s novels include Millicent Min, Girl Genius; Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time (an ALA Notable Book); the first Bobby book, Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally); and most recently WARP SPEED. She lives in South Pasadena, California, with her family. Please visit her website at www.lisayee.com.

Reviews

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
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0439425190
• ISBN 13: 9780439425193
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256