Max’s Words by Kate Banks, pictures by Boris Kulikov.

Max has two brothers.  Benjamin collects stamps and Karl collects coins.  Neither will give Max even a single stamp or coin for himself.  So Max decides to start his own collection, of words.  He starts with small words and moves on to larger ones.  When his brothers boast that they have thousands of stamps and hundreds of coins, Max says that he is saving to have enough for a story.  Max starts to sort through his words, and his brothers are caught up in the joy of creating a story too.

Banks has written a readable, friendly book about the joy of language.  Her word choices are wonderful, and you can tell that she had quite a large collection to choose from herself.  Kulikov’s illustrations add a whimsical, humorous side to the story, especially in the section where the words that Max is collecting are listed.  He uses graphics mixed with the words themselves to create a visual feast of words. 

My youngest son is an emergent reader and loved being able to match the words I was reading aloud with their graphic depiction.  The story is rich and wonderful and begs to be shared with children.  Kindergarteners through second graders should enjoy the story and may be prompted to start their own word lists or even their own stories.