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

Kate McKinnon has created a fantastically magical world with vivid creatures, contraptions and characters.

The idea of secret worlds and societies definitely appeals to the target audience (8-12), as does the idea of finding your special place in the world (this being a main theme of the story). I’m sure many young people who find it hard fitting in will identify with the main characters and find their experiences very relatable to their own situations.

With language featured throughout the text to extend them academically, this would be a good book to have in a classroom library or even use as a novel study to look more closely at the vocabulary, figurative language and the blended style of the writing while having a lot of fun.

I did find the abundance of footnotes and diagrams in this book a bit distracting and that they didn’t

I did find the abundance of footnotes and diagrams in this book a bit distracting, and at times they didn’t seem to add much. Once I decided to stop reading them, I felt the story moved more naturally. The descriptions are so well written that the diagrams felt like an extra rather than a necessity.

The storyline is clear and raises some good societal issues, with a good dollop of silliness mixed in!