Max's+Words

Max's Words

Max's Words By: Kate Banks Book Review by: Chandler Johnson __ Biographical Info __
 * ISBN-13: 978-0374399498
 * Author: Kate Banks
 * Illustrator: Boris Kulikov
 * Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
 * Publishing Date: August 8, 2006
 * Series: Max's Words (Book 1)
 * Pages: 32 Pages
 * Age Range: 4-8 year olds
 * Grade Range: Preschool - 3rd Grade

__ Summery __ > Bright, bold pictures incorporating clever wordplay accompany this highly original tale about a younger brother's ingenuity.
 * 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.

__ Book Review __
 * I thought that this is a really cute story that teaches about the importance that a single word can make. I like that the pictures are really vivid and that kids can relate to the little boy. I love that the little boy Max realizes that words are important and that they are more powerful than anything else.

__ Author Biography __
 * Kate Banks has written many books for children, among them //Max’s Words //, //And If the Moon Could Talk //, winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and //The Night Worker //, winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award. She grew up in Maine, where she and her two sisters and brother spent a lot of time outdoors, and where Banks developed an early love of reading. “I especially liked picture books,” she says, “and the way in which words and illustrations could create a whole new world in which sometimes real and other times magical and unexpected things could happen.” Banks attended Wellesley College and received her masters in history at Columbia University. She lived in Rome for eight years but now lives in the South of France with her husband and two sons, Peter Anton and Maximilian.

__ Additional Links __
 * http://www.amazon.com/Maxs-Words-Kate-Banks/dp/0374399492
 * https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Maxs-Words-Literature-Based-Language-Lessons-814186
 * http://notjustcute.com/2010/09/15/book-activity-maxs-words/