If you find that strange Kate McKinnon chose her first book for middle school children, the former “Saturday Night Live” Star says think again.

“I think sketch comedy and middle school are very similar,” she said recently over Zoom. “In middle school, there can be a blatant silliness that I only found in sketch comedy.”

“The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science,” available now, follows three Porch sisters, Gertrude, Eugenia and Dee-Dee, who feel like they don’t fit in in their ultra-modern city. They live with their snooty aunt and uncle and their equally snooty cousins ​​- all named Lavinia. When the Porch girls are expelled from school, they find a new mentor in an outrageous scientist with worms in her hair named Millicent Quibb.

In a question-and-answer session, McKinnon talked about her childhood and “The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science,” which she wrote largely from her bed. “Basically I stayed in bed for a year,” she laughed. The plan is for this to be book #1 in a series.

Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

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AP: Some themes in this book revolve around identity. It would be appropriate if you wrote this while filming “Barbie.” Do you have?

MCKINNON: I started writing before “SNL” and worked on it all the time, whenever I had time, and then picked it up right back after I left. I like crazy people. I’m a weirdo. I like playing crazy and contacting other crazy people. And this was just another place for it.

AP: What was it like going from the hectic, repetitive pace of “SNL” to writing full-time?

MCKINNON: I was surprised at how much it felt like a performance. I felt like I was improvising. It felt like sitting in a room and writing a sketch for “SNL,” but then you just have a lot more time to revise. I absolutely love it. Since I’m an introvert, I don’t mind writing alone. As much as I miss my colleagues, somehow it suits me.

AP: In the book, the Porch sisters find a true mentor in Millicent, who encourages them to be whoever and how they want to be. Who was your Millicent as a child?

MCKINNON: I had parents who celebrated my strange little activities and let me take the clams home when we ate linguine and clams at a restaurant. They bought me little archaeological kits and really encouraged my esoteric interest. I also had teachers who helped and supported me. Sometimes a magical adult comes in and encourages the gifts you were born with that others say are bad.

AP: The book is silly and funny. Have you ever found yourself laughing while writing?

MCKINNON: I do. I like names. I think funny names are a whole art in themselves. I was proud of the names I came up with.

AP: Talk about narrating the audiobook.

MCKINNON: That was one of the most labor-intensive gigs I’ve ever done. I’ve written a lot of voice-overs, but you do every line. When writing, I first had to come up with the voices for all the characters. Everything makes me ask myself, “What is the voice?” I have to start with that. Then decide on the hairstyle and the clothes and that’s all you need to know. I knew what all the characters sounded like at the beginning.

AP: Will you be doing a book tour and meeting your readers?

MCKINNON: I’m going on a hike across the country and I’m incredibly excited. At 12, I got the message from the culture and some of my peers that I wasn’t okay the way I was. If someone looks at you and says, “Hey, what you think is weird about you is actually what’s going to save you as an adult.” And that’s exactly what’s going to help the world at large.” Giving that to someone else would be that honor of my life.