Penny's Reviews and Chat

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

by Lisa Yee

Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee, is an entertaining and amusing story of an eleven year old girl genius trying to have a “normal” life, with the help of family and a new friend. We “normals” can’t imagine the frustration and often the pain that accompanies being a child prodigy or genius. This book tells it to us in the first person—in Millicent's voice, which is sometimes tongue-in-cheek.

Millicent thinks that being a genius is all well and good until she tries to have friends and they are put off by her genius accomplishments. She’s jumping right into high school without finishing middle school. In fact, she’s jumping to senior year. Her mother lets her take a college summer school course, but then signs Millie up for summer volleyball in an attempt to give her some more normal activities. Millie’s best friend is her grandmother  Maddie, who’s going to do other things and won’t be available to Millie as much in the future.

After being “used” by a college coed to do the girl’s homework, Millie decides it’s better to not tell her new friend Emily that she’s eleven and going to high school. It’s not exactly a lie—more like many sins of omission, that will eventually turn into outright lies. Millicent fails to mention that she’s brilliant, has won many awards for her accomplishments. Of course, it’s hard to keep up this charade all summer and even harder when she’s seen in the library with Stanford, a cute boy, a jock, who Millicent is tutoring. The boy, Stanford, is also embarrassed and pretends that he’s tutoring Millie. The web Millie has woven gets more and more complicated. Can she fix it, can she make it be all right, or is it going to collapse around her and leave her miserable and alone?

This is a lighthearted treatment of the serious subject of kids who are different. Yes, there are brilliant children and we don’t know how to act around them and they don’t know how to be “normal.” Should they have to deny their gifts and talents in order to be treated well or have friends? What about children who are “differently abled,” with visible or invisible handicaps? We treat them differently, too. We don’t know how to deal with the outliers, those who are brilliant, those who are disabled, autistic, mentally challenged, and so forth. We need to learn how to get along with all kinds, all levels of intelligence, behavior and functioning challenges. It’s hard to be different, but we are all different in some way. We have our insecurities, worries, concerns, phobias, mental and physical challenges. We need to learn and practice compassion, understanding, tolerance, and acceptance. Books like these can be more than entertainment—they can help us see some of the mistakes we make and learn from them.

Information on Lisa Yee is at http://www.lisayee.com

Tags:
Millicent Min, Girl Genius, Lisa Yea, brilliant, awards, talented, Maddie, Emily, Stanford, volleyball, middle school, high school, college, differences, lies, friends, friendship, family