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This book hits on sharing, feelings, pride and a few other old fashion life lessons. Perfect for the Kindergarten/1st grade level. My son loves it. Cute book. One of the ones we read over and over.
This is a great book - creative and kid friendly. My only concern is that some of the words are not clear enough for children to read. With some changes in the fonts and the size of the words, this book would be fabulous.
The unusual story features a dreamy and imaginative younger brother who wants to start an unconventional collection, words, which he later turns into a story. The art in this book really grabbed me. It features big headed kids in a luminous landscape. It reminds me of THE PUDDLE PAIL, by Elisa Kleven, in which a younger brother, a blue crocodile, collects puddles which he later turns into a watercolour painting collection. Sure to get kids thinking about unusual collections beyond the usual stamps, coins, etc.
Max's 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". He skips out to where his two brothers are playing croquet, and says, "Found, ground". 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. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2008.Max likes to make up rhymes and he has a rich imagination. Banks, Kate. Max's brothers join in the play.
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. Max lies down in the grass and looks up at the clouds; he tells his brothers that his dragon is practicing flying. A dark purple cloud depicts a dinosaur chasing after a fire-breathing dragon who then turns and blows the scary dinosaur away. "I'm looking for words that rhyme", says Max. Pictures by Boris Kulikov. Colorful paintings capture nicely the mood of the three brothers as they play, talk, and imagine together.
"What are you doing." asks his brother Karl. Then he finds an umbrella decorated with a dragon. In one dramatic double spread some billowing rain clouds represent an imagined dragon falling into a well. This creative picture book will appeal most to children, ages 4-8.
I bought this book because I thought it was cute (the cover intrigued me). They are so proud. It was so much fun.
They got so excited about it that they thought our class should start a word collection. They came up with several sentences. I took it to my classroom to share with my lst grade students.
The kids worked together for over an hour for 2 days straight. 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.
We posted them in our hallway along with a review of the book. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has anything to do with children.
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