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.

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!