Max Makes a Million - Hardcover

Kalman, Maira

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1681371707 ISBN 13: 9781681371702

Publisher: NYR Children's Collection, 2017

Synopsis

Max’s dream is to live in Paris and be a poet. But do you think it is easy for a dog to pack a small brown suitcase, put on a beret, and hop on a plane? Ha! No one will buy Max’s poems, so without money he must stay put. But living in New York City isn’t so bad. Where else could he have friends like Bruno, with his invisible paintings, or Marcello, who builds upside down houses? And where else could he drop in at Baby Henry’s Candy Shop? It’s all possible in New York, a jumping jazzy city. And for Max, it’s a dog’s life that only Maira Kalman could invent.

About this title

About the Author:

Maira Kalman is an illustrator, author, and designer. She has created many covers for The New Yorker, including the famous map of Newyorkistan (with Rick Meyerowitz). Kalman is the author of twelve children’s books, including five books about Max the dog, which will be reissued by The New York Review Children's Collection: Hey Willy, See the Pyramids and Max Makes a Million (September 2017); Ooh-la-la (Max in Love) and Max in Hollywood, Baby (February 2018); and Swami on Rye (September 2018). She also has designed fabric for Isaac Mizrahi, accessories for Kate Spade, sets for the Mark Morris Dance Company, and, with her late husband, Tibor Kalman, under the M&Co. label, clocks, umbrellas, and other accessories for the Museum of Modern Art. Her work is shown at the Julie Saul Gallery in Manhattan.

Review:

“The sarcastic wit, absurd non-sequiturs and eclectic diversions, not to mention the naïve drawing and painting style of this and later books, particularly appealed...Maira helped found a new genre of picture books that employed kinetic type composition as an expressive means of marrying word and image...Maira’s major protagonist, a dog named Max, became an instant classic, winning children’s hearts and book awards.” —Eye Magazine

"Kalman’s verbal inventiveness, her mastery of a simple yet poetic language that children can love, her inexhaustibly original illustrations, rich with women with unlikely hairdos, men with beards that reach the floor, and upside down houses, keep a child enchanted through countless readings." —Mitch Abidor, Jewish Currents

"In this unique blend of reality and fantasy, intermingled words and images seem influenced by such strange sources as Mamie Eisenhower’s wardrobe, the Jazz Age and the Theatre of the Absurd. Banter that rings with sophistication is well matched by the esoteric illustrative approach readers have come to expect from Kalman. Although there is much to glean from an unhurried single reading, this fanciful creation yields its greatest treasures through repeated visits." —Publishers Weekly

"This whimsical extravaganza—clever and urbane—celebrates New York’s wildly varied cosmopolitans while recounting how the hero, who is a dog and a poet, finally gets a publisher and will be able to realize his dream of going to Paris. Accompanied by witty illustrations that make sly references to other artists." —Kirkus Reviews

"Every now and then, a character in literature exerts a kind of magnetic field on the reader. The force of his or her personality, speaking in a fully individualized voice, grabs us like a carnival barker and just won’t let go. Holden Caulfield had that effect on a generation; Augie March came close; there have been a few others as well, but their voices aren’t necessarily limited to ‘grown up books.’ Especially now that Max, dreamer, dog, poet, has had his say." —Booklist

"Maira Kalman’s marvelously inventive gifts really shine in the picture-book format. I’ve long felt that her artwork, with its playful use of color and perspective, provides kids with a fantastic organic introduction to the manifold varieties of art." —Lisa Pliscou, author of Dude

About this edition

• Publisher: NYR Children's Collection
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1681371707
• ISBN 13: 9781681371702
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 48