I’m drawn by the imagination and word-play that embodies this book. Max uses playroom blocks to tell a story, and then to change the story by, for example, turning MOAT into BOAT. It was a little advanced for my child, requiring a basic understanding of spelling that she doesn’t quite have yet. I would recommend for primary grades. Even so, I felt the story was a little long for the target age group, I found myself losing focus after a time. There are also two other books in this series, Max’s Words, and Max’s Dragon (I haven’t read either). Max, one of three brothers featured in the book, finds a box of alphabet blocks under his bed and from there the boys' imaginations take off on an adventure through a castle "built" of blocks. The illustrations are bold and bright. The kids will have fun listening to the words and scanning the illustrations for the letter blocks that make up the words in the text, looking at how the word ADDER becomes LADDER. Letter scrambles are very popular with my daughter, a ten year old about to start 5th grade. I think she would appreciate this picture book for that very reason.
What do You think about Max's Castle (2011)?
Max is back and again he makes an adventure for he and his brothers using letters and words.
—Vicki
Loved this book. Great for 3rd-5th graders who would have fun playing with the words
—jmbats
