Max at Night (Max)

by Ed Vere

[Joni Reads]

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A super cute bedtime book! I read this to my twins before bed last night and they really enjoyed it. Reminiscent of Good Night Moon, Max is really sleepy and ready for bed but first he must say goodnight to his surroundings. When he goes to say Good Night to the moon he realizes he cannot find it! So he goes on a search to find the moon and tell it Good Night.

This book was a bit interactive in that every time Max asked something if it knew where the moon was (for example he said Good Night to a tall hill) my son would pipe up and say "No!" When Max finally located the moon my daughter said "Yay!" and clapped. The repetitiveness of the text makes it ideal for young toddlers who can catch on to the idea of the book and understand what is happening.

My only issue is that it seemed a little bit linger than it needed to be. Max's journey consisted of A LOT of steps before finally finding Moon and this was supposed to be a very sleepy cat. It's not an issue that kids will catch onto unless you have older siblings sitting it on the reading but it still kind of made the story drag on. My daughter eventually got restless and began playing with her toys while I was reading, paying only half attention to the book.

Max as a character is really sweet though and even though the story lagged a bit I would still read it again and I would read any other books with Max in them. I have since discovered Max the Brave and hope to add that to our library soon.