I picked this one up ages and ages ago (another one off the TBR pile! YAY!) because I’m a frequent lurker at Lisa Yee’s blog, which I think is hilarious. After a while, though, I felt kind of silly loving someone’s blog — especially when that someone is a published author — and never having read anything by them. So, I mooched this one (no, I didn’t actually pay for it; I’m horrid) and finally got around to it yesterday.

It’s a really cute book. I think I was expecting something more laugh-out-loud funny –kind of like her blog can be — but I wasn’t disappointed. It was a very sweet, fun, cute book.

Millicent Min is a genius. She’s 11 years old, and just finished up her junior year in high school. She’s the captain of the math team, routinely routs everyone at chess, has multiple awards and articles written about her, and has… no friends. She tells herself that this doesn’t bother her — she’s bonding with her the professor of her college poetry class after all — and there’s just too much to learn and do in a day for her to actually have friends. Besides, everyone’s usually intimidated or turned off by her genius status for her to get close to anyone. Then, her life changes. Her mother decides that she needs to go out for team sports, and signs her up for volleyball. She meets Emily, who’s new in town and doesn’t know Millicent is a genius. And, on top of that, she is asked (and paid) to tutor Stanford Wong (her nemesis) in English so he can pass the 6th grade. And because of these two simple things, her life will never be the same.

That makes it sound more ominous than it really is. She does manage to have a good summer, in spite of not wanting to play volleyball or tutor Stanford, but beyond that, she learns how to have friends. I liked that about the book. That Yee didn’t set out to do something huge or grand, but rather choosing to have someone — someone very bright, but very backward — learn something really simple, but something that you can’t learn from books.

And so, I read it with a smile, thoroughly charmed by everyone in the book. I’m glad I mooched it, too. It’s a keeper.