SarahJanet's Books

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

Yet another of the YRCA books, this time in the intermediate category. It seems a little too simple for the grades 7-9 it's aimed at, and it's certainly not on par quality wise with the other books I've read for YRCA.

This book is not exactly breaking down any doors and creating a new enlightening genre. It's the diary of a girl, aged 11, who is a genius. Nothing particularly outstanding about the idea, or the book itself. She has the usual struggle between her intellect and her age, and meets her first friend over the course of her summer vacation.

While Millie is kind of entertaining at first, she's not terribly endearing, and I found myself not very interested in what happened to her. The problem with the diary format is that you only get her perspective on things, and it doesn't really do her any favours to see her self-centered view of the world. While the diary style works for me sometimes, this is not one of those times. It's a harmless enough book, but it made virtually no impression on me at any point. Kids will probably like it well enough, but I'd be surprised if it won the YRCA.

posted by SarahJanet @ 3:18 PM