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

by Kate McKinnon Narrated by Kate McKinnon, Emily Lynne

Overview

From beloved Saturday Night Live alum Kate McKinnon comes a madcap new adventure about three sisters, a ravenous worm, and a mysterious mad scientist.

So, you want to be a young mad scientist. Congratulations! Admitting it is the first step. The second step is reading the (definitely true) tale of the Porch sisters...

Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee Porch do not belong. They don't belong in the snooty town of Antiquarium, where all girls have to go to etiquette school and the only dog allowed is the bichon frise. They don't belong with their adoptive family, where all their cousins are named Lavinia and their Aunt has more brooches than books. And they certainly don't belong at Mrs. Wintermacher's etiquette school-they're far more interested in science. After getting kicked out of the last etiquette school that would take them, the girls expect to be sent away for good... until they receive a mysterious invitation to new school.

Suddenly the girls are under the tutelage of the infamous Millicent Quibb-a mad scientist with worms in her hair and oysters in her bathtub. At 231 Mysterium Way, the pizza is fatal, the bus is powered by Gerbils, and the Dean of Students is a hermit crab. Dangerous? Yes! More fun than they've ever had? Absolutely! But when the sisters are asked to save their town from an evil cabal of nefarious mad scientists, they must learn to embrace what has always made them stand out, and determine what side they're on-before it's too late!

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A #1 New York Times bestseller
One of Audible's top 10 best kids listens of 2024
Longlisted for the 2024 OWL Awards (The Outstanding Works of Literature)
An Amazon Best Book of 2024 for ages 9-12
An NPR  “Books We Love” 2024 best books of the year feature
AnAssociated Press, 2024 Holiday Gift Guide feature

"An endlessly inventive smorgasbord of fun, Millicent Quibb reads like a collab between Edward Gorey and Kurt Vonnegut: hilarious, proudly strange, and slightly twisted, with real humanity and a ton of sweetness at its heart.”—Ransom Riggs, #1 NYT bestselling author of the Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children series

“Fiercely feisty and unapologetically goofy.”—Kirkus

“McKinnon celebrates weirdness in this ludicrous and unpredictable female-centered romp… Ink drawings by Cáceres give vivid life to the amusing absurdity of this over-the-top, 1911-set tale where Pastramibirds fly and monstrous sharp-toothed worms have hankerings for bichon frise.”—Publishers Weekly

“McKinnon's debut combines madcap adventures with imaginative worldbuilding and charming characters, all enhanced by illustrator and comic book artist Alfredo Caceres's endearingly creepy illustrations. Fans of Lemony Snicket and Pseudonymous Bosch should enjoy McKinnon's wordplay and humorous footnotes, and a cliffhanger ending will likely leave readers eager for more hijinks.”—Shelf Awareness

"The narrator, one G. Edwina Candlestank, is at turns conversational, dramatic, and flippant, but always engaging…Hand this to any young student (and sci-fi fan) trying to find their place in their community."—School Library Journal

"Brimming with imagination and wit—what a wonderful heart-racing read!"—N. E. Bode, author of the Anybodies trilogy

“Kate McKinnon’s middle-grade debut is a tour de force of wild invention that offers a trio of science-mad (or mad scientist?) sisters and a backstage peek at how stories work. If you’re wondering if it’s funny—as in, Kate McKinnon funny? Belly-laugh, mind blown, did-she-really-just-say-that funny? Yes! It is that funny.”
 —Maryrose Wood, author the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series

“This book is just like a mad science experiment: terribly mysterious, surprisingly smelly, potentially explosive, and a whole lot of fun. I recommend it to mad scientists and mad readers alike. Everyone will love this book. Unless, of course, their name is Lavinia."—Pseudonymous Bosch, New York Times bestselling author of the Secret Series and the Bad Books

“It comes as no surprise that Kate McKinnon writes with the same unique sense of humor and heart that has made audiences fall in love with her time and again. Her quirky and unforgettable characters in The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science will have readers laughing out loud and plotting experiments for many generations to come.”—Chris Colfer, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Land of Stories series

"It's no surprise this book made me laugh out loud—after all, it’s written by Kate McKinnon! But I was also delighted to meet this fantastic cast of clever characters and to be drawn into a mad, mysterious world that reminded me, in all the best ways, of the stories I most loved growing up. (And love even more now.) Kids will eat this up! Unless a ravenous worm eats them first! Give them this book and a decent head start!”
 —Trenton Lee Stewart, New York Times bestselling author of the Mysterious Benedict Society series and The Secret Keepers

"This book upsets me. It frightens me. I cannot wait to read it again."—Lemony Snicket, New York Times bestselling author of the Series of Unfortunate Events series

Kirkus Reviews

2024-07-19
Three young girls are tasked with saving their town from a vicious worm.

This romp from actor McKinnon introduces the three Porch girls: Gertrude, age 12 and three-quarters, Eugenia, age 12 and one-eighth, and Dee-Dee, age 11. Cared for by Aunt Desdemona and Uncle Ansel (along with their seven cousins, who are all named Lavinia), they’re forced to live in a ramshackle shed at the edge of the property. In a classic turn of events, the sisters are invited to a new school run by a certain Millicent Quibb. Under Quibb’s eccentric tutelage, the trio learn that the nefarious Krenetics Research Association, hoping to release their founder, Talon Sharktūth, from his vault, has bred a Kyrgalops, a vicious stone- and puppy-chomping worm, which may destroy their entire town. McKinnon’s middle-grade debut is grandiosely silly, reminiscent of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events in both its sesquipedalian language and tone and in relying heavily on its bespoke lexicon, verbal gymnastics, and cheeky footnotes to deliver jokes. Interspersed throughout are bits of visual interest—poems and songs, schematics, and bits of correspondence. Though the action rockets along at a Pixy Stix–fueled pace, many questions are left unanswered or unaddressed, making this series opener exposition heavy and a bit frustrating. Still, readers will ultimately be left hopeful that subsequent volumes will offer something meatier. The illustrations cue some diversity of skin tone among the characters.

Fiercely feisty and unapologetically goofy. (map, afterword, appendices)(Adventure. 8-12)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191402079
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	10/01/2024
Series:	The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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