Reference: Yee, Lisa.  Millicent Min, Girl Genius. New York: Scholastic Press, 2003.

            Millicent Min, Girl Genius is a fun and light novel about an eleven year old girl, Millicent Min, who is entering her senior year of high school and is taking college courses “for fun” at the local college.  She is not your typical eleven year old, she, as the title suggests, is a genius.  She is very close with her grandmother Maddie and does not have much in common with most kids her age.  One thing she does have in common with young adolescents her age is her unwavering embarrassment of her parents, who she believes are unnecessarily frivolous and silly.  During the period of the novel, which follows Millicent in the summer between her junior and senior year of high school, her parents push her to be more social with children her age and sign her up for volleyball.  At first, this experience is unbearable, but then Millicent meets the new girl in town, Emily, and they become fast friends.  Over the course of the summer, Millicent learns how to loosen up and relate to children her own age. 

            I thought this book was a fun read, but did not delve into very serious issues or bring up any important themes or ideas. It does delve into the issues of adolescence and the relationship between parents and children.  Millicent does grow throughout the novel and become more aware of how to establish more intimate relationships with others, however, overall, I do not believe that this novel could be taught to an entire class.  As far as it being a multi-cultural novel, although the main characters are Asian, it is rarely discussed in the novel.  I would recommend putting it on the shelf of a classroom library, but besides that, I would not recommend teaching it to a class.