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Community News
March 14, 2012
Middle Pick: “Max’s Castle” Word play is fun, and there’s plenty of letter sparring in “Max’s Castle,” an ingenious book by Kate Banks about an inventive boy named Max. When Max retrieves some old blocks from under his bed, his big brothers do what big brothers sometimes do – they poke fun at Max, especially when they find out he’s hiding a block in his pocket. Benjamin and Karl tell him he’s too old to play with baby toys, but Max shows them PDQ that blocks are AOK. He begins to build a castle where walls become halls, and simple items in his room become fantastical objects that captivate his brothers’ attention. Soon they want to be part of Max’s building project too. Of course a castle has to have a moat, then the boys need a boat, and before long they’re tussling about who will be king? Naturally there’s a dark dungeon, a dragon and a guard. The adventure continues, and words lurk within other words as the story unfurls with playful illustrations by Boris Kulikov. You’ll have to put on your thinking caps on to figure out some of the word puzzles, but by the end all the pieces will fit and you’ll see how the words stack up for a blockhead who wins his brothers over.
Learn & Play Did you Know? St. Patrick didn’t banish snakes from Ireland. There were never any snakes there. Ireland is surrounded by icy ocean waters…too cold for snakes!
SUDOKU:
Fill in the blank squares in the grid, making sure that every row, column and 3-by-3 box includes all the digits 1 through 9.
Community News is proud to offer our readers “Book Buzz.” This column will feature great books for children in three categories: Youngest Pick: early childhood to the first or second grade, Middle Pick: elementary school children, and Oldest Pick: middle school children. Enjoy! Reprinted with permission, Missourian Publishing Company. Copright 2012.
See solution on page 13
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