Max's Words (Max's Words, 1)

I bought this book because I thought it was cute (the cover intrigued me). I took it to my classroom to share with my lst grade students. They got so excited about it that they thought our class should start a word collection. So I drug out old magazines & newspapers and we began to clip and save the most fascinating words we could find. Then we decided that we should try to invent some sentences just like Max did. It was so much fun! The kids worked together for over an hour for 2 days straight. They came up with several sentences. We posted them in our hallway along with a review of the book. They are so proud! I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has anything to do with children!

Most adults buyers of kids' books are book lovers themselves. I can't help but believe that they hope their little ones will internalize their love of words and reading. It's a laudable goal, but not an easy one. Kates Banks, however, succeeds magnificently in transforming the metaphorical power of words into something much more literal! Banks and the very talented illustrator, Boris Kulikov, begin with three boys: Karl the coin collector, Benjamin the stamp collector, and Max--who can't think of anything to collect. To make matters worse, Ben and Karl refuse to share their collections with Max. Suddenly, and to the derision of his two friends, Max decides to collect words. Max proceeds slowly but diligently, never reading words bigger than he can digest. With a little confidence, Max moves on to bigger and bigger words, and then to words he doesn't even know! As he embellishes his vocabulary, Kulikov throws in some clever visual puns; the shape and form of the written words reflect their meanings: The word "Baseball" is in the shape of a bat, the "O" in the word "dogs" is a collar, "hungry" is written on paper that has a big bite. "Alligator" and "crocodile" are long words with spikey teeth along their edges, together they form the upper and lower jaws of something one might call a "crocogator." Through Max's testing of words and word order, Banks and Kulikov also explore the power of syntax: Word order can make a big difference! Max discovers (and we share this through the pictures), that "A Blue Crocodile Ate the Green Iguana," has a different meaning than "The Blue Iguana Ate the Green Crocodile," a difference particularly significant to the iguana and the Croc! As the book progresses, the increasing energy and scope of the words' power seems inspired by a combination of the old Monsanto "Shrinking Person" ride at Disneyland, the runaway power of "The Sorcerer's Apprenctice," and the dream-becomes-nightmare of "Alice in Wonderland." Max (a playful, curious and therefore fast learner) discovers that with enough words he can write a story. As Karl and Benjamin discover that the word can be mightier than the sword, they try to ruin Max's story about a young worm with their own animated words. "Karl scrambled for more words. He wanted the crocodle to eat the worn." Fortunately, Max is quicker--he and the worm narrowly escape through a hole, signifying Max's newly won confidence and self-acceptance. This is a wonderful, well-illustrated, book about how we learn reading, and the power of words combined with a good imagination.

A great story with wondrful illustrations. Has a good lesson and is fun to read.

That whole "sharing" concept doesn't extend to big brother Benjamin's snooty stamp collection, or Karl's precious coins. What's little Max to do? When he picks up a scissors to start collecting words, you know he's got greater ambitions than just sniffing stamp glue or stuffing his piggy bank. "I've got a thousand stamps," said Benjamin. "When I get a few more coins, I'll have nearly five hundred," said Karl. "And when I have a few more words, I'll have a story," said Max. You go, Max! But dontcha know that once his brothers catch wind of it, they try to elbow him aside and take over. Big brothers, who needs 'em. I have three myself, and I even inherited the stamp and coin collections after they were no longer cool. So I know what I'm talking about. That Max is out there snipping syllables for the rest of us. And what's with these Russian illustrators? They're starting to make the homegrown variety look bad. Sure, Kulikov lives in Brooklyn, but you know what they say. You can take the boy out of the Hermitage but you can't take all that Eastern iconography out of the boy. Max radiates. Max looms. Max is the only one in a comfy sweater instead of a stuffy suit, so you know he's cool. And Max seems to bend the picture plane so all points lead to Max, even when he's pushed to one side. A keeper, this one. You mark my words -- and Max's.

I'm a media specialist for grades K-6, so I read a LOT of books to kids. I usually can make anything interesting with effort, but some books are more work to make exciting than others. I bought this book because I could imagine some great instructional tie-ins for my students. We're typing random words in fancy fonts in tech class, putting them on magnets and arranging them to form ideas, much like Max did. The book was a means to an end; I did not have high expectations for how well it would hold the kids'interest. So I am quite surprised to report that I haven't read a book in a long time where the kids were so totally sucked into the story as they were with this one. They were with me every second, right to the last page and they loved it. It's not high drama or even very much of a plot, but my kids seemed to be totally captured by the idea of cutting out words as a collection. Then when Max started putting his words together to make a story, they were honestly on the edge of their seats waiting to see what would happen. Surprised me, for sure. I didn't try it below 2nd grade and all my students needed some discussion beforehand about what a collection is and how people collect stamps & coins. But once they were grounded in the concept, the book managed to engage all my students, even the somewhat jaded 5th & 6th graders. Instructionally this book could be useful in a number of ways and combined with the fact that the kids love it, I have a feeling this book is going to become one of those classic media center mainstays.