School Library Journal Review
Gr 3--5--From the mind of beloved comedian McKinnon comes a madcap tale of three orphan girls who just don't fit in their turn-of-the-century town. Antiquarium is a place where all the girls wear fancy Tafeteen dresses, own a fluffy bichon frise, attend etiquette school to learn how to sit properly, and receive a silver spoon for their 10th birthdays. The Porch sisters, meanwhile, would rather be crafting inventions, cracking geodes, and caring for bats and slugs. When they get kicked out of etiquette school and wind up in a mad science school instead, the unlikely heroines must work with infamous mad scientist Millicent Quibb to foil a plot involving a secret society and a giant, rock-eating worm. McKinnon's tale is a wild ride full of footnotes, asides, and arbitrary tidbits that are never revisited, but her unique voice carries through all the while. The narrator, one G. Edwina Candlestank, is at turns conversational, dramatic, and flippant, but always engaging. Readers will also get a kick out of Millicent's strange inventions, from the Gerbilcar to the guinea pig massage chair to the Flycycle, a flying motorcycle fashioned after a housefly. VERDICT Hand this to any young student (and sci-fi fan) trying to find their place in their community.--Lindsay Loup
Publisher's Weekly Review
Actor McKinnon celebrates weirdness in this ludicrous and unpredictable female-centered romp, a series-starting debut in the tradition of Daniel Pinkwater and Dav Pilkey. Compassionate, slug-loving Gertrude, rock-enthusiast Eugenia, and brainiac Dee-Dee Porch do not feel as if they fit into the posh society of Antiquarium, Rhodechussetts, where they are kicked out of yet another etiquette school after an experiment with a flying bat harnessed into a "Bat Straightener" goes awry. The sisterly trio are soon taken in by the "infamous mad scientist" Millicent Quibb, who invites them to become her first students as they work together to combat a nefarious research association. Madcap misadventures ensue within a plot that's loaded with self-aware asides and wry humor; an opening warning notes that "the situations contained in these books could cause: Instant death, Extremely instant death (bad), Semi-instant death (worse)," and more. 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. The cast cues as white. Ages 8--12. (Oct.)
