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"Millicent Min, Girl Genius" is Lisa Yee's first novel, and it is an utterly charming debut, as well as being the kind of tour de force that leaves one breathless. Can Yee really keep all those plates in the air -- create a bona fide genius voice for her young narrator, juggle all the plot elements, and still finish without faltering? Turns out she can. Unlike so many children's literary heroines, Millicent Min is not going to disappoint her young readers; I'm betting they'll ask to see more, and indeed a sequel seems likely. (The end leaves just enough open to promise further adventures.)
Millicent Minn -- known to her friends as Millie and to her enemies as "Mill the Pill" -- read great literature at age 3, appeared on talk shows, and whizzed through school so fast we find her, as the novel opens, finishing her junior year of high school at age 11. She is small, "like a twig," feisty, unapologetic about her brains and ambitions.
Do her high school classmates think she's cute? Not a chance. Only the teachers sign her yearbook with any enthusiasm, and we're not so sure about them either. (An exasperated kindergarten teacher "promoted" her after one day.) She is, in her own words, a classic geek.
But in the course of one remarkable summer, Millie makes her first-ever "age appropriate" best friend; takes her first college class; serves her first volleyball over the net; tells her first big lie; and learns that people are not always what they first appear to be.
Will Millie's grandmother really pack everything and move to Europe to study feng shui? Will she summon the courage to tell her new best friend, Emily, about her enormous brains? (Maybe . . .) The novel has just the right number of mysteries, red herrings, and surprise conclusions.
Millie is the most likable unlikable heroine since Jane Austen's Emma, and like Emma, she makes mistakes, gets her comeuppance, and triumphs in the end. Yee's mastery of the "girl genius" voice is flawless, by turns hilarious and poignant. I can't wait to read "The Further Adventures of Millicent Min, Girl Genius."
Liz Rosenberg reviews children's books for the Globe each month. She teaches English at Binghamton University. Her most recent book for children is "On Christmas Eve," illustrated by John Clapp.
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