Max and the Millions: 1

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All this is to say that we start off with a perfectly realistic representation of a deaf and mainstreamed child. Once the magic comes into play, the deafness remains realistic, but the hearing aids take on magical qualities through the ministrations of Mr. Darrow, who is some kind of technological genius. Max is used to spending time alone – it’s difficult to make friends in a big, chaotic school when you’re deaf. He prefers to give his attention to the little things in life . . . like making awesome, detailed replica models. Then Mr Darrow, the school caretaker and fellow modeller, goes missing. Max must follow his parting instruction: ‘Go to my room. You’ll know what to do.’ There on the floor he finds a pile of sand . . . and in the sand is Mr Darrow’s latest creation. A tiny boy, no bigger than an ant. Luke, Prince of the Blues. And behind the tiny boy. . . millions of others – a thriving, bustling, sprawling civilization! A civilization that needs Max’s help . . . While Max and his newfound friend Sasha fight to protect the Floor from their evil headmaster, the people on the floor must fight to save it from being destroyed by all-out war. Together they have to learn to work together to save the tiny world in this hilarious, fast paced adventure.

Max and the Millions | Anson Primary School Max and the Millions | Anson Primary School

This will make children think a lot about the size of things, the interpretations and different viewpoints in a situation. Max's size gives him a new stature to the Floor people, their world is seen as something tiny and insignificant by some full-size characters. A delightful whiff of Monty Python . . . Ross Montgomery’s writing is often pure Douglas Adams.’ SFX The ending, I wasn't sure about, but I did come to terms with Max's decisions and saw his reasoning. It fitted. There on the floor he finds a pile of sand . . . and in the sand is Mr Darrow’s latest creation . . . a tiny boy, no bigger than a raisin, Luke, Prince of the Blues. And behind the tiny boy . . . millions of others – a thriving, bustling, sprawling civilization! Max, a white boy who is the only deaf student and hearing-aid user in his English boarding school, loves building models, but his world changes when his brilliant mentor, Mr. Darrow, the school janitor, inexplicably disappears.

In Max and the Millions Ross Montgomery takes readers in to the tiny world of Floor that the Blues, Reds and Greens call home. They are at war for the control of Floor but little do they know there is something much bigger that could mean the end of their civilisation. Demon is coming and he is bringing his vacuum cleaner! There is one person who can save them and his name is Max. Although Max needs hearing aids to hear it is his ability to lip read that helps him to communicate with these microscopic people and help them when they need it the most. Max is a lonely deaf boy who uses hearing aids and finds it difficult to communicate and make friends with the other boys at his boarding school. His only friend is the useless school caretaker, Mr Darrow, who shares his love of building intricate models.

Max and the Millions | Faber

Who hasn't wished they had a world of tiny people in their bedroom? I know I used to imagine my toys came to life, that my Duplo characters moved around at night, wished I could talk to the Tooth Fairy - the size difference, the power difference fascinated me. Fantastic premise, nice to have a hearing impaired hero, loved the multi-perspective narrative. This would make a really effective children's TV series. From Costa-shortlisted superstar, a highly anticipated standalone adventure about what happens when you find a tiny, living, breathing civilization on the floor of your school dorm room.Max is used to spending time alone - it's difficult to make friends in a big, chaotic school when you're deaf. He prefers to give his attention to the little things in life . . . like making awesome, detailed replica models. Then Mr Darrow, the school caretaker and fellow modeller, goes missing. Max must follow his parting instruction: 'Go to my room. You'll know what to do.'There on the floor he finds a pile of sand . . . and in the sand is Mr Darrow's latest creation . . . a tiny boy, no bigger than a raisin, Luke, Prince of the Blues. And behind the tiny boy . . . millions of others - a thriving, bustling, sprawling civilization!'A fast-paced and enjoyable adventure that encourages readers to appreciate the small things in life.' Kirkus'A delightful whiff of Monty Python . . . Ross Montgomery's writing is often pure Douglas Adams.' SFX'Totally off-the-wall story. The world building is superb.' The Bookbag'A funny, well plotted tale.' Sunday Express'Marvellously funny and original . . . it's the tiny details that make the story work.' Financial Times'An inventive and funny adventure.' Inis Children Books Ireland Then Mr Darrow, the school caretaker and fellow modeller, goes missing. Max must follow his parting instruction: ‘Go to my room. You’ll know what to do.’When Mr Darrow disappears and has still not reappeared at the end of the summer holidays, Max begins to worry. Escaping the Sparkle Unicorn Club for little girls which has been hosted by the school over the summer, Max goes to Mr Darrow's room and discovers a tiny civilisation has come to life and grown all over Mr Darrow's room. But the miniature world is on the brink of war and Max must team up with his roommate Sasha and tiny King Luke to save the miniature world from the school's horrible headmaster. When Max investigates Darrow’s room, he discovers a minuscule civilization known as the Floor, populated by millions of tiny, sentient people. By using Mr. Darrow’s special goggles, lip-reading, and a special setting on his hearing aids, Max can communicate with the warring populace, who have divided themselves up by hair and eye color (skin color is not mentioned) into separate factions: Blues, Reds, and Greens. With the help of Sasha, Max’s white American roommate; Sasha’s Sparkle Pony–obsessed little sister; Luke, a young Blue prince; and a Red girl named Ivy, Max helps unite the factions, saves the micro world from the evil headmaster, and discovers what happened to Mr. Darrow. Running parallel to Max’s story is one that centers on Luke, in which Max is the Giant. In the author’s note, Montgomery details his research into the experiences of deaf children. Max’s feelings of social isolation due to his deafness are honest, and his growing friendship with Sasha is heartwarming. It is surprising that Max uses no technology beyond hearing aids to navigate the hearing world, but some of this can be understood as more of the headmaster’s incompetence and neglect. While some of the details are inconsistently presented, much of the worldbuilding is deliciously clever.

Max and the Millions by Ross Montgomery: 9781524718848 Max and the Millions by Ross Montgomery: 9781524718848

The day before summer vacation, Max’s closest friend at boarding school disappears, leaving behind his amazing model collection and a handful of sand on his bedroom floor. Like Max, the eccentric janitor Mr. Darrow is a genius at building tiny models. Eight weeks later, Max finds that the sand has magically transformed into a whole desert kingdom–filled with millions of tiny people! This book was ridiculous fun! With sugar-crazed five-year-old-girl army, noble steed fleas, carrot thefts, sparkle-unicorn onesies, and a headmaster I would love to have pushed into a dustbin, Max's adventure is all kinds of hilarious. It also does a nice job of outlining some basic deaf awareness skills and some of the difficulties that deaf children face. 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 definitely have preferred Max to have sign language knowledge or have used alternative communication with Sasha (such as writing) rather than him having lip-reading superpowers that enabled him to understand basically everything Sasha said (that's very unrealistic - only about 30% of speech can be lipread, and that's without accents coming into the mix). It's also rather inappropriate to have the hearing kid teaching the d/Deaf kid to sign. Despite this, I enjoyed how Max's hearing aids were an important part of the story and the focus on him making friends and developing confidence in himself and his ability to communicate. Sasha was wonderful, as was his sister and her sparkle-unicorn minions. At time this books violent language startled me; it’s been a while since I’ve read the line ‘how many blood sacrifices would you like?’. But it never becomes distasteful. I had to remind myself that I am a very different reader from an eight year old. It is always handled with a pinch of humour. It may feel like too much for an overprotective adult reader, but not for a child. After all his kindness, Max feels he owes Mr Darrow. Can he save the tiny people from war? Can he find out what happened to Mr Darrow? And most of all, can he keep Mr Pitt, the evil headmaster away from Mr Darrow’s room while he does it? With some similarities to both The Indian in the Cupboard (morality of wielding power over those smaller than yourself) and Horton Hears a Who (tiny world and believing in the impossible), Montgomery has conjured up a modern-day setting - a pretty posh school - and an 'everyboy' - Max, with his hearing aids and penchant for building tiny models, just wanting to be left alone.In my opinion, this novel is definitely an adventure novel, best suited for those looking from excitement and elements of humour from their reading. Max was deafened at age four, and initially mainstreamed at a small school that provided communication support. (Note that elementary schools generally have more support and peer interactions are less complex, so this is highly realistic.) But then Max is sent to a large boarding school with no support.

Max and the Millions | Vocabulary Ninja Max and the Millions | Vocabulary Ninja

It's also a strange statement to make in that Max has spent much of this book lipreading incredibly tiny people with no sound input. The majority of successful speechreaders do use residual hearing to supplement their lipreading, and it's clear that Max does as well. But even without this use of residual hearing, Max is able to successfully communicate. So he's been relying on lipreading alone for quite a while, without complaint. Max doesn’t enjoy being the only orphan at St Goliath’s Boarding school. That and his hearing aids make him different to his classmates. The only person who he feels at ease with is Mr Darrow, the school caretaker. They both love modelling, but Mr Darrow has taken his a huge step further – he has tiny people in his models, and they are alive! Solid state physics Quantum theory Chemical bonds SCIENCE Physics Condensed Matter Física do estado sólido Mecânica quântica

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Additionally, the creative writing ideas this book could spur would be highly inclusive- for example, those pupils excited by the violent threats and tabulations between the three camps could take this element of the story further and story map/ write an alternative section focusing on these miniature groups. The more sensitive of pupils in the class could take on Max’s story for friendship and his difficulties communicating, perhaps how Sasha and his friendship develops in the next academic term. Night Mayor Franklefink has vanished from the Transylvanian Express - and it's up to you to solve the case! Part of the Solve Your Own Mystery seri... Author Guy Bass introduces SCRAP, about one robot who tried to protect the humans on his planet against an army of robots. Now the humans need his... A fast-paced and enjoyable adventure that encourages readers to appreciate the small things in life.’ Kirkus The book has some strong themes from friendship and fitting in to the importance of co-operation. These messages are made very explicit by Max and Luke's attempts to bring together the three floor tribes but, fortunately, the surreal storyline prevents this sounding in any way preachy. Max's disability is also well used in the plot, making his lip reading into a skill that's akin to a superpower rather than a negative necessity.