NINE WORDS MAX is a clever and funny story about Max, a young prince who spends his days asking questions and pontificating at length about all topics, as he is interested in everything. His three brothers (who are the opposite of verbose) finally get a wizard to cast a spell on Max to limit him to 9 words at a time.

With their parents away and facing an important state visit from Queen Spark of the land of Flint, who are very particular and easily offended, Max is the only one who has bothered to learn all their idiosyncrasies. But because he can only say 9 words at a time, he is stymied from telling his kingdom how to act towards the visitors. Mayhem ensues until the spell is finally undone.

This story is a fun ode to the power of curiosity and learning. ( )

Max is a prince who loves information and talking endlessly about it. Her brothers are driven crazy by this and when their parents take a short trip leaving them in charge they get the wizard to cast a spell that will only allow Max to speak nine words at a time. Finally peace for his older brothers. Plans for another Queen to visit are in motion and only Max paid enough attention in school to know the protocol for visiting royalty, but his instructions keep getting cut short.

This was a cute little picture book. For the first few pages I read the bubbles with all of Max's speech, and I can see why his brothers were driven crazy. Readers with a short attention span may not be able to sit through it all, so I switched to just reading the main text. Overall, an enjoyable read, but will probably not make it onto my Re-read list. ( )

I have a mixed reaction to "NIne Words Max." I enjoyed the basic story which has a fairy tale feel. Many of the illustrations invite close scrutiny for clever details. On the other hand, I feel the use of unnecessary character stereotypes when portraying the four princes undermines the success of the storytelling - the story might have been given more depth if the characters were allowed unique identities. ( )

Max loves to talk and his 3 brothers of tired of all the noise.
Looking to find peace they have the wizard cast a spell.
Made me think about the people I believe talk too much and
I quickly started wondering if I should be listening more.
Loved this book and am sure my students will as well! ( )

This book was cute. I liked that the story explained, without actually saying it, how important knowledge is to the world. The pictures were also fun. ( )