Max's Words | Kate Banks

Max's Words | Kate Banks | Recipe to become a writer

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Max's Words

	Max's Words Kate Banks Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2006 - 32 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Max?s brothers have grand collections that everyone makes a big fuss over. Benjamin collects stamps and Karl collects coins, and neither one will share with their little brother. So Max decides to start a collection of his own. He?s going to collect words. He starts with small words that he cuts out of newspapers and magazines, but soon his collection has spilled out into the hall. All the while, his brothers are watching. Benjamin brags that he has one thousand stamps. Karl is just a few coins short of five hundred. But a thousand stamps is really just a bunch of stamps, and a lot of coins is only a heap of money. A pile of words, however, can make a story.

Bright, bold pictures incorporating clever wordplay accompany this highly original tale about a younger brother?s ingenuity.

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Max's Words

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!

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Recipe to become a writer

I find Max's Words to be an excellent tool for children on how to learn the principles of the structure of a language. The power of this book is that the idea can be adapted to any language. That makes me think that any child using it frequently may become, if not a writer, at least, an avid reader.

Great story

My son Max and I enjoyed this story of the youngest and wildest brother of three who insists on creating a collection of words, after his older brothers refuse to share their collections of stamps and money with him. Max and I both enjoyed the fun that comes from the idea of collecting words. A really fun book with great illustrations.

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Excellent Book!

Shows how words and reading can be fun! My 4 year old loves the book. I donated a copy to his school's library and the librarian loved it too. Why can't there be more books like this out there for young children?? No bad guys, just fun.

creative

Banks, Kate. Max's Dragon. Pictures by Boris Kulikov. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2008.

Max likes to make up rhymes and he has a rich imagination. He skips out to where his two brothers are playing croquet, and says, "Found, ground". "What are you doing?" asks his brother Karl. "I'm looking for words that rhyme", says Max. Then he finds an umbrella decorated with a dragon. When a croquet ball makes a trail in the grass, Max follows, telling his brothers that his "dragon's tail has made a trail" and he is "following it". Max lies down in the grass and looks up at the clouds; he tells his brothers that his dragon is practicing flying. Max's brothers join in the play. His brother Ben characterizes a dark cloud as a dinosaur, and Karl says, "It's going after your dragon!" It begins to rain and Max says, "My dragon's roar has made it pour" and Karl cries, "What can we do to stop it?" Max says, "You need to make a rhyme"; it turns out that not only do rhymes make the rain go away but also rhymes can make the rain come back. Colorful paintings capture nicely the mood of the three brothers as they play, talk, and imagine together. In one dramatic double spread some billowing rain clouds represent an imagined dragon falling into a well. The illustrations brim with exuberance and exaggerations: a lizard watches Max as he first peers intently at the ground, and then scrunches up under a bright red umbrella that is decorated with a yellow dragon. A dark purple cloud depicts a dinosaur chasing after a fire-breathing dragon who then turns and blows the scary dinosaur away. This creative picture book will appeal most to children, ages 4-8.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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