Millicent Min, Girl Genius
Millicent Min, Girl Genius is a 2003 children's novel by Lisa Yee. The author's first published book, it is about a girl genius named Millicent Min who attends high school in the fictional town of Rancho Rosetta, California. This young girl has a lot of trouble in her social circle. She is an 11-year-old genius but she has no friends. To make things worse, she has to go play volleyball. She also has to tutor her arch-enemy Stanford Wong who almost flunked sixth grade. Then Millicent meets nice Emily Ebers, a fellow volleyball victim, but thinks that to become her friend she has to hide the fact that she is smart. The rest of the novel is spent with Millicent trying to keep her secret from Emily while also having to deal with other problems such as her Grandmother Maddie moving away and having to deal with Stanford, especially when he finds out about Emily and befriends her as well.
 First edition | |
| Author | Lisa Yee |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Or Spanish (there are different versions.) |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Arthur A. Levine Books |
Publication date | October 1, 2003 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 256 pp (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0-439-34257-0 |
| OCLC | 51009159 |
| LC Class | PZ7.H62964 Ki 2004 |
In the companion books, Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time and So Totally Emily Ebers, this situation is shown from the other children's points of view.
Awards & nominations
- Sid Fleischman Humor Award 2004
- Publishers Weekly Flying Start
- CCBC Choice
- Bank Street Book of the Year 2004
- International Reading Association Children's Choice
- 2005-2006 Texas Lone Star List Nominee
- The Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee
- Georgia Book Award Nominee
- Garden State Book Awards Nominee
- Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice Award Nominee
- Nevada Young Readers Award Nominee
- Nene Award Nominee (Hawaii)
- Insinglass Teen Award Nominee (New Hampshire)
- Young Reader's Choice Award Nominee - Pacific Northwest Library Association
- South Carolina Junior Book Award Nominee
Summary
Millicent Min has skipped five grades, been featured in PBS specials and TIME Magazine as well, won third place at the National Math Bowl, and been on Jeopardy; now, she is looking forward to becoming senior valedictorian and earning a scholarship to an Ivy League university- at age 11. Despite this young age, the socially inept Millicent has already completed 11th grade and is anticipating a summer taking a college poetry course. Millicent's mother signs Millicent up for volleyball and assigns her a job tutoring Stanford Wong, a basketball player, in an effort to improve her social skills. In addition, Millicent's grandmother Maddie, her best and only friend, is leaving for England to attend a fengshui academy.
In volleyball, Millicent is befriended by Emily, an outgoing girl. In order to maintain her friendship with Emily, Millicent believes she must hide her high IQ and pretend that she is home-schooled. She thinks that Emily will treat her just like everyone else has treated her if she knows that Millicent is an genius. When Emily finds Millicent and Stanford in the library at one of their tutoring sessions, Millicent acts as the failing student and treats Stanford as the genius.
Stanford agrees to pretend to be the tutor, as Stanford has a crush on Emily, and out of need to impress her, acts smart, believing that it is the only reason that Emily likes him. Both Stanford's and Millicent's lying to Emily bond them together. All that Emily talks about is Stanford.
One sleepover at Millie's house, Emily finds out that Millicent is actually a genius. Angry that Millicent had been hiding all this from her, she storms out of the house. Emily even rejects Stanford after figuring out that he was also lying.
On top of all this, Millicent is also having problems at home. Her father is jobless, and her mother is showing symptoms of a potentially fatal brain tumor.
Eventually, after Millicent begins to come to terms with the problem and faces Emily, they quickly become friends again after a few sincere apologies. After attending a Labor Day Fiesta, Millicent is also able to reconcile with Stanford, who was able to pass his English Class after all. As the end of summer approaches, Millicent says goodbye to her Grandmother at the airport and discovers her dad has received a job at RadioShack. Millicent is also able to learn that her Mother is not sick but pregnant with her future sibling. It's also revealed that Maddie will be traveling back home to welcome her new grandchild and Millicent finally falls asleep, "too happy and sad and tired to even think."