Pistes d'exploration

Discuss why people collect things. What do your classmates or family collect?

Discuss how the author has played with text (e.g. font styles and sizes, concrete poetry, curved text, pictured words). Why did he do this?

Make a collection of your family’s favourite words. Compare them with the words of other students. 

Create a story or poem with your own cut-out word collection (as in the book) adding in the small connecting words as necessary. Glue the words onto a large piece of paper.

Discuss the book. How are the illustrations of Max’s words important to the story? Who do you think has the best collection in the story? Why? Talk about a collection that belongs to you or someone you know.

Sort words from the story into categories (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs). Use resources to find the meanings of new words.

Create a class story with illustrations using the prompt at the end of the book. In groups, follow Max’s steps: write words, then sentences, then a story.

The Boy Who Loved Words, Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Step Outside, Beatrice Spells Some Lulus and Learns to Write a Letter, TheRight Word: Roget and His Thesaurus

Mots-clés

Picture book , brothers , collecting , imagination , non-traditional text layout , storytelling

Commentaire descriptif

Benjamin has a big collection of stamps; Karl collects coins. When his brothers won’t give Max anything from their collections, Max decides to start his own. Rich, evocative language describes Benjamin’s stamps which have: “ragged edges and sticky backs;” Karl’s coins have “people and buildings on them and the year in which they were made.” When Max decides to collect words, his brothers laugh. He starts by snipping words from magazines and newspapers; small words at first: “a, the, its, an, ate.” But as his collection grows, so do the words he chooses: “hungry, asked, alligator.” Warm colours and fine detailing characterize painted illustrations that hint at another era. They contrast scruffy-headed Max with his waistcoated, slick-haired brothers. They show Max snatching words from the air with a butterfly net, or tipping them out of open books. When Max begins to sort and arrange the word collection into sentences, his brothers start to show interest. Readers of all ages will find a satisfying ending, as Max agrees to share his words—in exchange for a stamp and a coin.