Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time

Yee, Lisa. Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time. Scholastic, 2005. Paperback $5.99, ISBN-13 978-0-439-62248-6.

What’s it about?

Stanford Wong, star basketball player, in danger of failing the sixth grade and being off the team, must miss basketball camp, take summer school and endure the humiliation of his nemesis Millicent Min tutoring him.  

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Stanford Wong is looking forward to going to a highly reputable basketball camp and being the only seventh grader to be on the A-team at school.  He feels that his life is over when his English teacher, Mr. Glick, tells him he will fail sixth grade if he doesn’t take English in summer school. As if this isn’t bad enough, Stanford must miss basketball camp to take summer school. He may even be off the basketball team if he doesn’t pass. Plus, his parents are fighting, his work-a-holic father is perpetually disappointed in him, and his beloved grandmother Yin-Yin is sent to a depressing nursing home. Could things be worse? Yes—Stanford must also suffer the indignity of being tutored by Millicent Min, a snotty eleven-year-old genius who is already taking college courses. He fears losing his friends and new girlfriend, Millicent’s friend Emily Ebers if they find out he is taking summer school. He and Millicent craft a lie that protects Stanford’s secret (that he struggle in school) and Millie’s secret (that she is a genius), but threatens their friendships with Emily.  

Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time is an accessible and funny book about a likeable under-achiever. It is not necessary to have read Millicent Min, Girl Genius to enjoy Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, but it is hilarious to see how different the same events look to these very different protagonists. Stanford comes across as a bit of a jerk in from Millicent’s perspective, but he is far more sensitive than she imagines. He certainly doesn’t see himself as the handsome, popular big-shot he is portrayed as. Instead, Stanford always feels on edge about his social status, which wasn’t always good. He is secret stress-knitter. He watches Sesame Street with his taciturn friend Stretch (who is so self-conscious about his voice change that he never speaks.) At the same time, Stanford is a very talented athlete with a tight-knit group of friends (and a frenemy, the mean-spirited and trouble Digger).  This book may appeal more to boys, with its fart jokes and guy humor, but its humor and sensitive portrayal of Stanford will also appeal to girls.

Genre: Humor, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Friendship Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade 

Interest level: Grades 4-7

Subjects: School, Grades, Basketball, Family, Friends, Parental disapproval, Self-esteem, Popularity

Read-alikes:

Korman’s No More Dead Dogs

Series information:   

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

So Totally Emily Ebers 

So Totally Emily Ebers

Yee, Lisa. So Totally Emily Ebers. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. Tr. $16.99 ISBN 978-0-439-83847-4

What’s it about?

Emily Ebers has just moved to Rancho Rosetta because of her parent’s divorce and meets a girl named Millicent Min on her volleyball team and a handsome basketball player named Stanford Wong.  These three lives intersect in hilarious and unexpected ways.  

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Emily Ebers’ parents recently divorced, and now Emily’s mom has moved her all the way to Rancho Rosetta California. Emily begins writing letters to her father, who is on tour with his band, the Talky Boys, updating him on her new life without him. She is having an interesting summer, including joining a volleyball team and making a new friend, meeting a cute boy that she develops a crush on, and seeing her controlled mom try on a new identity as a free-spirited hippie.  When Emily discovers that many people in her life are not what they appear to be, she is disillusioned. She learns to weather the tough times and to repair the relationships that matter.

This is largely a humorous tale, although there are plenty of more serious moments that occur when Emily realizes some people, including her father, are not being honest with her.  Emily’s disillusionment with her father, Millicent, and her frenemies is something a lot of tweens can relate to. Although this is painful for Emily, she comes out of these struggles stronger. She learns to discern between quality people and people that don’t genuinely care about her. Although she is initially flattered by the attention Julie, the queen bee in volleyball, is giving her, she realizes she is being used and ridiculed and stands up for herself. Emily is such a good-natured character that her anger (though justified!) is surprising. This book can be read as a stand-alone, although readers of Millicent Min, Girl Genius and/or Stanford Wong Flunks Out will gobble up this book, and readers who have started off with So Totally Emily Ebers will be eager to read about these events from the perspectives of Millicent and Stanford.  

Genre: Contemporary Realistic fiction, Humor, Friendship Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 5-7

Awards: Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Awards Nominee, 2010

Read-alikes:

Danziger & Martin’s P.S. Longer Letter Later

Blume’s Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself

Cabot’s Ally Finkle’s Rules for Girl series

Subject: Friendship, family relationships, divorce, popularity

Characters:

Emily: Effervescent protagonist, struggling to accept her parent’s divorce and adjusting to her new life in Rancho Rosetta, CA

Millicent: Emily’ new best friend, a funny girl being tutored by the brilliant Stanford Wong (or is she?)

Stanford: A handsome basketball player, the object of Emily’s affections, Millicent’s tutor (or is he?)

Alice Ebers: Emily’s mother, a journalist, hit hard by the divorce

Julie: A mean girl clique leader who wants to make-over Emily in her image 

David Ebers: Emily’s absentee father, on tour with the Talky Boys (or is he?)

Series information:

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

Stanford Wong Flunks Out

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

Yee. Lisa. Millicent Min, Girl Genius. Arthur A. Levine books, 2003. ISBN 9780439425193

What’s it about?

Being a child genius is tough, Millicent Min can attest.  Millie’s life gets more complicated when her mom signs her up for volleyball and makes her tutor her nemesis Stanford Wong.

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An eleven-year-old genius, Millicent Min is enjoying her summer, looking forward to spending time with Maddie, her eccentric grandmother, taking her first college course, and making new friends who are interested in intellectual talks . . . until her new college friend turns out to be a sham, her mother signs her up for volleyball, and she has to tutor her childhood nemesis, Stanford Wong. Millie, despite (or because of) her intellect, struggles socially and doesn’t have any friends her own age. Things begin to look up when Millie makes a friend in volleyball, a cheerful girl named Emily Ebers, who adores her. Millie hides the fact that she is a genius, however, since she thinks Emily won’t like her any longer if she knows Millie’s IQ is through the roof. Millicent goes to comic lengths to conceal her intelligence, which turns out to be a bone-headed move—Emily finds out about everything, and feels betrayed that Millicent wasn’t honest with her.

This entertaining book is one of those rare books that manages to be both funny and substantial. Millicent has a unique voice, and Yee is able to show the reader that Millie’s logic is not infallible—she jumps to hilariously mistaken conclusions. When the book begins, Millie’s intelligence defines her to herself and the world. Before the reader gets to know Millicent the person, they are bombarded with her accomplishments, which are listed in a resume, including grades skipped, recent awards, television appearances, too numerous to completely list and thus capped with a pretentious “et cetera.”  Readers will be drawn in as Millie begins to soften and show her vulnerability, particularly in her friendship with Emily and her worries about her parents.  Hand this book to bright upper elementary students and middle schoolers, particularly those that enjoy humor and realistic fiction.  

Genre label: Contemporary Realistic fiction, humor, multi-cultural

Reading level: 6^th grade

Interest level: Ages 10-13

Read-alikes:

 Harriet the Spy

Mindblind (although the protagonist of Mindblind has Asperger’s syndrome, readers interested in childhood genius will find this a compelling read)    

Subjects/themes:  Genius, friendship, honesty, family relationships

Awards: 2004 winner of the Sid Fleischman Humor Award

Series information: Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time and So Totally Emily Ebers

Character name/descriptions:

Millicent: Girl Genius, forced to join volleyball and tutor Stanford Wong, her nemesis

Stanford: Mr. Popular, potentially flunking out, Millie’s nemesis—and tutoring student

Emily: Effervescent and girly new best friend to Millicent; develops a crush on Stanford Wong


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