Review: The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science

The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science

By Kate McKinnon

New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2024. Fiction. 243 pages.

In this middle grade book, three orphaned girls who were raised as sisters by a horrible adopted family who clearly didn't care about them, work together to save their town. Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee have never fit into their town of Antiquarium, Rhodechussetts. In fact, due to their misadventures and crazy science experiments they've been kicked out of every etiquette school in the entire city. When they accept a strange invitation that they receive in the mail to a new etiquette school just opening up in town to avoid being sent to finishing school in Austria, they find that the school is run by none other than Millicent Quibb, a mad scientist who is blamed for everything that goes wrong in the town. They soon find, though, that things aren't exactly how they appear and they'll need to join forces with Millicent to save everyone they know from a terrible fate.

If your kids are in to madcap adventure stories, humor books, or crazy science, this book is sure to delight them. Give this to fans of Lemony Snicket's The Series of Unfortunate Events books and they'll definitely thank you. If you like audiobooks, this is an especially fun one, narrated by McKinnon with hilarious voices and sound effects. Kids will be sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the next installment in the series.

Comments

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester 2008

J Fiction 328 pages I almost didn't finish this book. I got to Chapter 4, and was just about ready to quit (a kind of slow story about a girl, name of Piper McCloud, who discovers she can fly, parents freak out, she becomes a social outcast, yadda, yadda) but suddenly, right there in Chapter 4, the story takes a sharp turn and becomes really interesting . Piper finds herself in the company of others like her, but not "fliers", and under the care and authority of Dr. Hellion. I won't even tell you any more. Read this book. Forester does a great job of keeping you wondering who's the good guy and who's the bad? Piper is a likeable, strong, endearing character that girl readers will enjoy. But don't NOT give it to boys! The main male character is an extremely intelligent young man who is one of the ones you wonder about . . . good or bad? This is a good one, well worth your time.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages. Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Search This Blog