This book had me laughing out loud on one page and gasping in horror on another! Millicent Quibb is the teacher of your dreams and your nightmares. You will not want to miss this zany, topsy turvy, hilarious beginning to a new series! Fans of The Swifts, Lemony Snicket, and The Mysterious Benedict Society will be thrilled to read this one.
— Caroline
November/December 2024 Kids Indie Next List
“Get ready for a fast-paced adventure with the Porch Sisters. Kate McKinnon’s middle-grade debut is full of monsters, slugs, orphans, exciting science experiments, and villains. Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee will captivate you immediately.”
— Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA
Description
A #1 New York Times bestseller!
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!
About the Author
Kate McKinnon is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, award-winning performer, and writer, who is celebrated globally for her work in film and television. Young readers will recognize her voice role as ‘Ms. Frizzle’ in THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS RIDES AGAIN for Netflix. She recently played ‘Weird Barbie’ in Greta Gerwig’s worldwide blockbuster hit, BARBIE. The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science is her debut novel.
Praise For…
"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
"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
"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
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