Max And his Big Imagination: The Cave product reviews

During Lockdown, Miss Three and Mr One had wonderful adventures building blanket forts in the house. Little kids love to play hide-and-seek, becoming hysterical with excitement when older family members pretend that they cannot find them; the fort becomes a safe place, their "personal space" where they can have all sorts of adventures.

It was timely therefore when they discovered that they were to review this book with me. Both of them were happy to realise that a "cave" in this context is the same as the "fort" they are familiar with, and because it was an experience they were comfortable with, the darkness inside was irrelevant. Personally, I think this is a wonderful way to help a child who might be afraid of the dark. Not that these two have a problem, but some children do find it hard to go to sleep when the light is turned off.

Having the torch helps Max to explore; in the process he meets three new friends who all prefer to live in the dark - the glow bug, the bat and the kiwi. They tell Max that their favourite game is hide-and-seek, something that completely normalises the action for little kids. Very soon Max has forgotten he was ever afraid as he plays with his new friends and has lots of fun.

Although Mr One was a little too young for the storyline, he loved the pictures and was able to point them out. Miss Three could follow both, although she too preferred the illustrations to the text and kept comparing what was happening with her own fort play. At the same time, she will grow into the printed words as she starts to read, and at that stage she will be able to read it on her own. This makes the book a success on three levels: the very young child, who follows the story mainly through the pictures; the pre-schooler who understands the story when it is read to her but cannot yet read it for herself; and the new entrant who is just learning to read - and at that level, a story the child is already familiar with is much more accessible.

The whole message of the Max books is "Read, Play, Imagine". Because the nocturnal creatures in the book are not really there, Max has to visualise them when he goes into his "cave". Children do have wonderful imaginations and are frequently natural storytellers. Some children even go on to develop this skill and to create their own fantasy stories via various art forms. Visualising is such an important way in which a young person learns to make sense of the world, and this book does it really well.