Millicent Min, Girl Genius -- Lisa Yee

Millicent Min is a Genius. She's eleven years old and a junior in high school. She was on The Tonight Show at age two, where, when asked to recite the names of the U. S. Presidents, she asked Jay Leno if he would like to hear them in alphabetical order or numerical order.

While she's sad that school is out for the year, she's excited about taking her first college-level course, even though her parents refuse to let her take a math course -- they want her to take something for fun. She decides on Classic and Contemporary Poetry. Then, in the spirit of "more fun", without any prior consultation, her mother enrolls her in a junior volleyball league. 

Millicent does not excel at sports.

More things start going wrong: Her mother starts showing signs of grave illness, her grandmother drops a bombshell about leaving for Europe and she is asked to tutor Stanford Wong, her mortal enemy. Suddenly, the summer isn't looking so great.

Millicent Min begins her story with this:

I have been accused of being anal retentive, an overachiever, and a compulsive perfectionist, like those are bad things. My disposition probably has a lot to do with the fact that I am technically a genius.

I literally read those two sentences to every single person who walked through the room while I was reading this book. I even forced it on my Library Director this morning.

I LOVED IT. Millicent has a fantastic voice -- her humor ranges from deadpan to supremely geeky, she's amazingly self-absorbed, somewhat insensitive and when it comes to social situations, she's pretty much an idiot. She's adorable.

Comments

[Aljay]

I just wanted to say that I love your blog. I found 'Millicent Min' at the library today and thought it was great-I completely agree with your review, and with most of the others (when I've read the book). Have you read the Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian?

[Leila]

Hey, thanks! Nope, I haven't read them -- I feel like I haven't read a grown-up book in MONTHS, though that CAN'T be true. I think. Anyway, yes -- I should at least try one, right? Should I start at the beginning?

Probably. I wouldn't say that the first few books were my favourites, although they're all very good; but on the other hand, they're written in 19th-century style and are heavy on nautical lexicon in places, and getting used to that is really enough of a challenge without being thrown into the middle of character relationships as well. However, I would say that as the series goes on the books become more centred around people and their relationships and less around naval pursuits, so if the Royal Navy stuff bores you, it might be worth skipping the first few books and starting at 'Desolation Island', or 'The Fortune of War'.

Really, though, they're great. Patrick O'Brian has a definite sense of humour and his characterizations are amazing.