See also: The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty

Millie is eleven, but she's nearly done with high school, and has finally gotten her parents to agree that she can take one college course this summer. However, her mother also signed her up for volleyball, hoping she will make a friend her own age. Millie thinks that her grandma Maddie is the only friend she needs, but she does occasionally admit to loneliness, and develops a friendship with Emily. But Millie hides her genius status from Emily, and when Emily develops a crush on Stanford, who Millie is tutoring, they let her think that it's Stanford tutoring Millie. Of course, the lie blows up in Millie's face, and Emily is angry with them both, but Millie realizes she needs to apologize to repair the friendship.

As Emily realizes swiftly, Millie might be super book-smart, but isn't very socially adept. She also fails to notice that her mother's symptoms are signs of pregnancy, not impending death (although to be fair, there is some overlap). Millie does grow a good bit over the course of the summer, though she doesn't lose her habit of speaking without contractions, or carrying a briefcase.

Quotes

...I could commiserate with being the victim of an unwarranted comparison. (56)

I'm not sure what exactly is involved in being popular, but it seems to leave you with little time for anyone other than your own kind. (80)

"The only way I can relax is by getting things done" (Millie's mom, 85)

[Emily] really misses [her dad] but is afraid that if she tells her mother, Alice will feel hurt. So instead Emily doesn't talk to her mom at all. (132)

Why, I wondered, was it so hard just to tell her what I was thinking? (143)

All these years I've waited to go to college thinking that once I was there, everything would change. Everything would be better and I would finally find a place where I fit in. It is a cruel joke on me then that college is just like high school, only bigger. (193) ( )

This book is about an eleven year old girl who's a senior in high school, and her struggles to fit in and make friends when she's a genius. It's hilarious. Millicent is academically brilliant, socially clueless, and completely endearing. I laughed out loud so many times during this book. ( )

This is a review of the three book "sort of trilogy." Millicent Min, Girl Genius, Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time, and So Totally Emily Ebers

It's a trilogy in a way. The three books go together. But they can be read in any order, and if you read only one or two, you still have complete stories. Each book is told in first person by the title character. The three books take place during the same time frame, the summer before 7th grade for Stanford and Emily. (Millicent is the same age, 12, but she is about to finish high school.) Each character is telling his or her own story, but because the three know each other, there are episodes that overlap in two or three of the books. Then you have the same events being told from a different character's perspective.

All three characters are sympathetic and very likable, though each has their own demons and character weaknesses to conquer.

Millicent is afraid her mother is dying, and her beloved grandmother is planning to leave the country for a while to study feng shui in England. She has never had a friend her own age, because her exceptional intelligence scares people off. She doesn't know how to relate to kids her own age. She needs a friend. During the summer, she becomes friends with Emily Ebers, and if forced against her will to tutor the dim witted (in her opinion) Stanford Wong. Stanford and Emily meanwhile fall head over heels in love with each other.

Stanford is afraid his parents are going to get a divorce, and nothing he does is ever enough to please his dad. He has a huge crush on the new girl in town, Emily Ebers, but he has to pass English in Summer School or he fails 6th grade. Hence, tutoring by Millicent. He is obsessed with basketball, and is a star player. His group of friends includes one jerk, who gets his comeuppance in the end. Stanford's fearsome English teacher turns out to be different than he originally thought as well.

Emily has just moved to town with her newly divorced mother. She is angry with her mother about the divorce, and her story is told in diary entries addressed to her Dad, who is an aging rock musician trying to recapture his glory days, reviving his old band and going on tour during the summer. He never calls, and only occasionally sends her a postcard. Meanwhile she gets a close friend in Millicent, and a crush on Stanford, but she is also longing to join the popular clique, led by frequently obnoxious Julie.

Each of the three learns valuable lessons in non-preachy ways. You will root for them all. (For the young reader audience the Millicent Min book may be slightly less appealing. It's just as good of a book, but most kids will not relate to a 12 year old about to graduate high school as well as a 12 year old coping with divorce and moving or a 12 year old coping with failing school and lack of acceptance by his father.) ( )

I dunno. I wanted to like this more than I did. And there's nothing really wrong with it. It's a tiny bit cliched & predictable, and Millie comes across, esp. at the beginning, more as if she has Asperger's than just plain too much smarts. Otoh, what about when Millie was practicing [her] spontaneous laugh" - ? I bet lots of people have done that.

And I think that her parents pushed her too hard to become 'more well-rounded' and to make friends, even though that worked out in the end.

I guess maybe I identified with Millie too much. I don't believe that it's automatically unhealthy not to want to play team sports or to make friends. And all the examples of things that Yee uses to illustrate Millie's eccentricities seem normal to me. For example, it's perfectly ok, imo, to "add up our Taco Bell receipt to make sure we hadn't been overcharged."

True, Millie is only 11 and so she needs to be shown the world beyond her books - but who made those books available in the first place? I just didn't find her parents to be convincingly developed. And I didn't find her change of attitude/ personality from bookworm to social butterfly to be convincing, either.

Um, I think I have more to say, but I can't think of it right now..." ( )

Booktalk: Millicent Min is an excellent student. She's on the honor roll and she won first place in a statewide math competition. She's just passed the 11th grade with flying colors and looks forward to starting college soon. Oh, by the way, Millicent is 11 years old.

She's what you call an academic prodigy. Which means she's a genius. Millicent loves learning and reading and solving complicated problems, like helping the next-door neighbors with their taxes. Just hear how thrilled she is about the first college class she's taking this summer: (play read pp. 16-17, "At 9:28" to end of chapter).

But as smart as Millicent is, she's pretty clueless. She doesn't have friends her age and she really doesn't know how to make any. Actually who wants to be friends with some little kid who sets the grading curve for the entire junior class? So life can be pretty lonely for Millicent.

Then Millicent meets Emily who's just moved to town from New Jersey. Unlike the other kids Emily doesn't know Millicent is a genius. Even better, Emily likes Millicent and they hang out together over the summer. Millicent is sure this friendship will last only as long as Emily doesn't find out she's a genius. So she hides away all her academic trophies and certificates and award ribbons, and she works hard to make it seem like she's just a regular kid. A clever plan to be sure--but is she genius enough to hide the truth forever? ( )