I just love how Ken Wilson-Max focuses on books about technical stuff and machines for little kids. I this book our son could flip things and levers and really use his imagination. I highly recommend this little book for anyone with a child interested in machines, cars etc. The only bad thing (as with all books of this kind) is that paper things break fast in little hands.

This text provides a quick, concise review of the pimary topics covered on emergency medicine exams. I found it to be a good way to prepare for inservice exams and the written boards.

My two year old loves the book, but the moving parts did not hold up at all.

My sons (ages 3 & 7) love this book. They read/play with it so much, they wore it out. The moving parts on each page really keep their interest. It's lots of fun.

I first bought 'Max's Starry Night' for my then 24mos. old son. As an African American, I loved that the "hero" is a little brown boy. The story was meaningful (for a toddler) with great, simple adjectives just right for that age. We both love that book and read it frequently.

I bought 'Max' with the same expectations. I was so bored with 'Max' and my son wasn't much more impressed. It is overly simplistic with pop-ups that are untinteresting and flimsy. I find that all of Mr. Wilson-Max's pop-up books tear very easily (we have four of his pop-ups). I therefore really can't recommend this book. Instead, try 'Max's Starry Night' or if you have child that likes trains or space (as my 2yo does) try "Big Silver Space Shuttle" or "Big Blue Engine".

My 18-month old daughter absolutely loves this book. She asks to read "Max" at least once a day. The fact that the main character is an African-American intrigues her because there are not many books around that can boast that claim. The pull, push and turn interactivity is fun, but the adult reading it will have to assist little fingers in navigating the interactive features. The book is simple but highly enjoyable for children 15 months-5 years. We own one other Max book (Max's Mail) and intend to buy the rest of Ken Wilson-Max's books that feature Max as the main character.

This is my least favorite train book for children. When I ordered it online I thought it would be a fun book with many lift-the-flaps and I hoped it would help teach counting to 101 to my children. What a disappointment.

This is the first lift-the-flap book that I've seen that has two storylines. There is one storyline that is in between the flaps and is not related to the flaps in any way, and a totally different story going on under the flaps. The two cannot be read together at all. To make sense one must first read the story on the pages, ignoring the flaps. Then go back and lift each flap and read the words inside the flap and go through all 101 cars to read that story. The text under the flaps is much, much longer and more detailed than the other "story". There actually is no real plot to the words on the pages, it is mostly train sounds and disjointed phrases such as "can't go back".

I don't feel this teaches counting, as there are not a certain number of objects matched to the number, for example there are not 8 of some object than the number 8. The outer flap has a number on it then the text inside doesn't relate to that number, for example the flap number 30 says, "got Persian rugs". Every inner flap says "got" and then something. The flaps are so small they don't allow for showing the number of objects represented by the number nor does the text even say "got 30 Persian rugs" (which would have made sense to me). There are many varied and unrelated objects under the flaps, the text rhymes--sometimes. An example of a good rhyme (albeit goofy and probably not understood by young children) is "got CD, DVD, and movies, got party jackets for the smoothies, got 70s wigs for the groovies" (under 3 flaps). An example of a bad rhyme is " got cables that stretch for miles and miles, got telephones, faxes, and little mobiles". The only thing that is truly counted is if you count each train in the book, which would be a different exercise than reading the story on the page, or the story under the flaps and it is unrelated to lifting the flaps.

If this review sounds confusing, I apologize but this is the strangest and least organized book I've ever seen written for children. It seems to make no sense and is very jumbled up and a mess and hard to explain. I plan to get rid of this book as I dread it when my children ask to read it, and to inspire a love of reading in them I feel I should be a happy and enthusiastic reader, and I feel the books should be only good or exceptional in quality, and this is neither.

A great lift the flap book for train lovers! Plus it teaches counting skills 1-100! I'm going to buy another one!

Wilson-Max, Ken (2002). A Book of Letters. Illustrated by Manya Stojic. Scholastic. ISBN: 0-439-32455-. $

This is truly a book of letters, both the alphabet and the postal variety. In a twist on the chain letter, Abby recevies a letter, which tells her to pass it on to a child whose name starts with B. We follow the letters through the alphabet, until the child whose name begins with Y sends a letter to the first writer, Zuzu, bringing us full circle. The letter writers are from different parts of the globe, from a variety of climates, ethnicities, and ages.
Although the concept seems a bit strained at times (all of the letter writers have excellent grammar and spelling), this is an entertaining book. The illustrations are colorful and focus on the childrens' faces and their letters. The text is simple and is dominated by the short letters the children write to each other. There is a flap to lift on each page. At the end of the book is a removable poster, with the alphabet and each child's face and name, A to Z. A Book of Letters is would be particularly appropriate for a first or second grade classroom, and would be a great addition to a unit on letter writing.

This is a cute book, but the flusher stopped working after about 6 months of use. Very disappointing!

Really cute rhyming story with a button to press to hear the potty flush. It's a great book to keep in the bathroom for those marathon waits, but be careful they don't have so much fun with the book that they forget why they're sitting there! One of the more fun potty training books.

I was disappointed. This is a book for very young children, it contains few words, and simple ones at that.

Halala means 'congratulations' according to my zulu dictionary...which is wrong?