Review 49: Max & Huber by Dale Kilgore

Max & Huber
Written and Illustrated by Dale Kilgore
Copyright: © 2008
34 Pages
$13.99 Paperback

I’ve always been a fan of giving books as gifts during the holidays.  An “orphan tree” at work, where you pick paper ornaments off the tree displaying a list of items wanted by a child in a local orphanage or care facility and purchase the items as a donation, has given me the opportunity to buy books for a child in need for about the past four years at work.  Luckily, my niece also likes to read and books are often on her wish list as well.  I say this because my most recent Lulu find, a book called Max & Huber by Dale Kilgore, would make the perfect gift for a young reader.

Max & Huber is the story of a child named Max and his magic thinking cap which he calls Huber.  Many years ago, important words were put into word chests and hidden around the world.  Max discovers Huber in one of the chests and upon placing the hat on his head, the two set out on a magical journey to free the letters and create and explore words.  In one chest, all of the letters are jumbled up.  As Max and Huber unscramble the letters and create words they come across the actual items they’ve created from the words, like a boat or an apple or a leaf.

At 34 pages, Max & Huber is a very simple story and also very educational for kids who are just learning to spell and relate words to actual objects.  I could easily see this book as part of a grade school teacher’s curriculum.  Kids will also be excited about the 3D animation that accompanies every page.  The illustrations are amazing and make this book worthy of some type of award!

When Max and Huber open the first word chest, the “wordy mess” of letters float around at the top of the page.  I found myself trying to create words of my own from them, which would be another great activity for children.  As the two friends create words the letters fall away, so it becomes and even greater challenge to create words of your own out of the letters that are left.  It reminded me of when I was in school and teachers would have us hunt for a long word in the dictionary.  Then, the teacher would write one of the words on the chalk board and we’d have a contest to see who could create the most words out of that one word.  The longer the word the better like ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM!

If teachers wanted to use the book in their classroom, or your little relatives also become a fan of Max and Huber, then Dale Kilgore has also created three posters to go along with the book.  The posters are available in an 8×10 size starting at $6.99 or an 11×14 size for $11.99, and they reflect the same brilliant artwork displayed in the book.  Using Lulu’s customization process, you can even buy the poster in a black or oak colored frame.  There’s a fourth poster available as a free download.

Based on the fun website created to promote the book, www.huberm.com, I’d say we can look forward to much more from Dale Kilgore, and hopefully more of Max and Huber.  I’d love to  see online spelling games added to the website to make it more interactive.  There’s a $2.00 savings off the book now through December 25th, so take advantage of this sale.  You will not be disappointed!  Max & Huber is one of the best illustrated and educational kid’s books I’ve come across lately.