Max the Brave

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To be honest, when we first arrived at GOSH, I was actually quite relieved. Because of the journey we’d had at our local hospital and because Max’s illness was so rare, they’d had no idea how to treat it and they didn’t specialise in anything like that. Arriving at GOSH, we knew we were in one of the best children’s hospitals in the UK, in the world even, so we had a little bit of peace of mind. If we were going to be treated anywhere, this is where we wanted to be.”

Determined to be heroic, rather than sweet, Max the kitten goes in search of a mouse to hunt, since hunting mice is what brave cats do. Not sure just what a mouse looks like, Max interrogates a number of creatures, asking each one whether they are a mouse. When he finally does meet a mouse, that enterprising little creature assures him that he is a monster, and that the mouse Max is looking for is actually the sleeping monster nearby... In some ways, Max the Brave was very interactive. Max is a cat who is trying to be more brave and catch a mouse — the thing is, he doesn’t know what a mouse looks like. So off we go following Max and his journey to look for a mouse. He travels, meeting an array of different animals, big and small, in his hunt to catch a mouse. Ed Vere tells us more about Max, and why it's so important for adults to love picture books How do you feel about Max the Brave being chosen for Bookstart Treasure? This is a total nonsense book but one where you can interpret parts of the story into a discussion with a child... not a bad thing but there are better ways to supply a message subtly. (One such discussion could be about asking questions when you don't have enough information and another may be about who we can trust to gain information from.) I’m always on the lookout for children’s books for my younger sister and trying to get her to be more interested in books. Max the Brave was perfect.

Max also happens to be a mouse-catcher. There's a small problem, however. Max does not know what a mouse looks like! :

|But Max will not let sth this trivial deter him. He goes around asking everybody he runs into if they're a mouse! I heard a lot about this book and loved the idea of the drawings! I wasn't disappointed though I found it quite odd that he doesn't know what a mouse is as it should be instinctual to know... or you should at least ASK questions about what a mouse looks like! (Which he never did!) If we’re going to encourage children to read from an early age, then we have to do it with good books and I’m thrilled that Max is considered a good book. Where did the idea for Max the Brave come from? I felt at home at GOSH. We made friends with the nurses. Sometimes they would come in and give me a hug and make me a toast, I just felt close to them. Sometimes we just spoke about what we were watching on Netflix, it didn’t always have to be clinical. They become your friends because you don’t see your friends anymore, you just see the hospital. The cleaners of the ward just loved Max as well, Max loved it when they came in and danced to the radio with him. I think Max touched the hearts of many people on the wards."Max went straight into intensive care when he arrived at GOSH and underwent various tests to get a diagnosis. “After two long weeks of waiting, we were called into the parents meeting room, the world was upon our shoulders. Max had been diagnosed with a Malignant Rhabdoid Tumour, a highly malignant childhood cancer. The prognosis was not good.” I'm so glad I finally got a chance to read it and I found it quite amoosing. And I'm sure this sentiment will be shared by anybody who reads it! Please note that we received a free copy of this book as a result of a blog tour. However, this in no way influenced our rating or review. Max demonstrated that curiosity is normal to have and that we don't always have every single answer. This led to a genuinely amusing book that is sure to grab the attention of young readers and entertain the entire family all at once! Children are sure to follow along, fully engrossed as they wait to see if Max finally finds that darn mouse. Max is such a cute little kitten that people call him sweet and dress him up in ribbons. But he hates ribbons, and he doesn’t want to be sweet! He sees himself as a brave and courageous mouse catcher. There’s only one problem: he doesn’t know what a mouse looks like. He searches high and low and asks the birds, the fly, and the elephant if they are mice. Finally, he finds someone who maybe be able to help--or maybe his ally has ulterior motives. When Max finally confronts the monster, he realizes that being Max the Brave may not be as great as he thought.