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Posted 20 hours ago

Max and the Millions

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Darrow, the school’s janitor and an accomplished miniaturist, mentors Max who considers the janitor his best friend. Max is such a great character and the portrayal of his deafness feels very authentic (Montgomery consulted with staff and children from various schools and organisations, as well as his own early experience of hearing impairment). Max is used to spending time alone - it's difficult to make friends in a big, chaotic school when you're deaf.

The majority of successful speechreaders do use residual hearing to supplement their lipreading, and it's clear that Max does as well. Darrow disappears and Max follows his instructions to go straight to his room, Max discovers a miniature world. The ending, I wasn't sure about, but I did come to terms with Max's decisions and saw his reasoning. For a book with central themes of friendship and loyalty, Max's decision at the end came across as pretty selfish and unnecessary to me, even if Sasha was shown to be cool with it.This is so so much better than the books it is being compared to on the listing page (borrowers and indian in the cupboard). This will make children think a lot about the size of things, the interpretations and different viewpoints in a situation. He is deaf, and while this doesn’t need to be a problem, the unlikable head ensures that it is, singling him out with a special seat in assembly and showing him off like an exhibit to visitors. I loved how Montgomery developed the miniature world and its scaled-down sense of history and cultural dynamics.

Given how well done the deafness is, the unrealistic savant MacGyvering HAs (reminiscent of Tony Stark’s “magic” HAs for Clint Barton) is disappointing. This is such an enjoyable book and the Sparkle Pony Summer Club that Max and his friend, Sasha, were put in charge of – well, that was just hilarious. Still, middle grade aged readers will find lessons to learn from and probably want to discuss the choices made. It is quite possibly the most imaginative storyline I have read this year - as in, how on earth did the author come up with that plot and make it all fit together and work? I especially loved how receptive Sasha was to some of these things and the little nods to how the two boys adapted their communication to ensure both understood each other.I would have been happy to read more about their personal stories before moving on to the miniature adventures.

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