Millicent Min, Girl Genius is Lisa Yee's first book about an eleven and a half year old girl genius named Millicent Min who attends high school in the fictional town of Rancho Rosetta, California. This young girl has a lot of trouble in her social circle. She's an 11 year old genius but she has no friends. To make things worse, she has to go for volleyball. She also has to tutor her arch enemy Stanford Wong, who almost flunked sixth grade. Then she meets someone named Emily Ebers. Millicent has to hide the fact that she's so smart, she has to put up with a cretin like Stanford and go through volleyball.
There are two companion books from other characters' points-of-view: Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time and So Totally Emily Ebers.
Tropes found in this work:
- Alliterative Name: Millicent Min and Emily Ebers.
- Alliterative Title
- Alpha Bitch: Part of the plot of So Totally Emily Ebers revolves around the eponymous protagonist being sucked into the web of one of these, a girl named Julie, particularly during the time when she and Millie are on the outs due to Emily finding out Millie lied to her. She eventually sees the light after Julie manipulates her into buying half a dozen expensive purses for her and her Girl Posse.
- Asian and Nerdy: Millicent is Chinese, good at academics, and has No Social Skills. Inverted with Stanford, who is a Book Dumb jock, despite being also Chinese.
- Bumbling Dad: Millicent occasionally describes her father as inept compared to the rest of the family.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: In So Totally Emily Ebers, Emily's mother suggests that Emily call her Alice as part of her attempt to redefine herself and her relationship with Emily after her divorce. At the end of the book, when they've come to understand each other better and her mom has reached some level of equilibrium, Emily tells her that she misses calling her mother Mom, and her mother admits the whole thing was silly and tells Emily she can call her Mom if she wants to.
- The Fashionista: Emily is really into brand-name clothing and keeping up with the latest styles. Unfortunately, this earns her the attention of Alpha Bitch Julie.
- First Period Panic: Downplayed with Emily, who gets her first period while on Neighborhood Watch patrol with her mother. Given the context, she's initially spooked to see blood on her shorts thinking she might have been shot or something, but calms down when she realizes what's going on. She is, however, mortified when she runs into Stanford at the store while shopping for pads.
- Grade Skipper: Millie started high school at 9 years old.
- Gotta Pass the Class: Millicent starts tutoring her family "friend" Stanford when his grades fall so low that he loses his eligibility to play on the school basketball team.
- Hidden Depths: The books told from Stanford's and Emily's points of view reveal complicated backstories and motivations to both characters that aren't evident in the original.
- Idiot Ball: Emily's father gave a 12-year-old a credit card with only vague guidance on how to use it. What did he think was going to happen?
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: It's the main plot of the book. Millicent has no friends because she's a genius. When she befriends Emily, she hides her intelligence for a long time because she doesn't want to drive her away.
- Jerk Jock: Stanford is an obnoxious basketball player who is initially very rude to Millicent (though she's equally rude to him). He becomes more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold after he starts dating Emily, and even stands up for Millicent at the end.
- Little Miss Snarker: Millicent is 11 years old, and very sarcastic towards Stanford in a Snark-to-Snark Combat. She's also snarky towards herself in the narration.
- Naïve Everygirl: Emily is an average, innocent, and well-meaning girl. Although Millicent finds her a bit superficial (especially when it comes to boys), she still likes her for her friendly and cheerful personality.
- Perspective Flip: There are two spinoff novels, one told from Stanford's point of view and one told from Emily's.
- Protagonist Title
- Role Called: The book is titled after the main character, Millicent Min, who is a girl genius.
- Teen Genius: Millicent, a 11-year-old genius who already attends high school for her intelligence.
- Third Wheel: Millicent feels left out when her best friend Emily and her tutoree Stanford start dating.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Emily is upset that her father never calls or writes to her. Initially she justifies it as him being so busy doing some amazing thing that he doesn't have time, but she's eventually forced to admit he's just immature and doesn't care enough to make the effort.
