How can the Warthogs wedding go on without the ring? Max and Ruby lead the search through the grand hotel. Down to the laundry, up to the towers, back to the conservatory they run, following the map in Grandmother’s Bunnyphone.
Children will delight in lifting the flaps to see where Max and Ruby are headed next in this ingenious use of up-to-the-minute technology in telling another hilarious story featuring the beloved bunny siblings.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Rosemary Wells is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. She often uses animal characters to address real human issues. Some of her most well-known characters are Max & Ruby and Timothy from Timothy Goes To School (both were later adapted into Canadian-animated preschool television series, the former’s airing on Nickelodeon (part of the Nick Jr. block) and the latter’s as part of PBS Kids on PBS).
Rosemary Wells can do much better than this. I picked up a copy and had her autograph it and I have to say, maybe she was sick or jet lagged or something, but she wasn't at all pleasant. She just basically glared at me when I told her how much I liked the Max and Ruby series and didn't say a word. The autograph has her name on one side of the page and my name on the other, nothing to get excited by. After I read the book today, I have serious doubts about adding the book at all to the library. It is a story of Max and Ruby wandering through the hotel using their grandma's cell phone map app. The phones are all flaps so won't last in a library for long, and I suspect will be dated fairly quickly. The actual story line isn't particularly creative and other than telling kids how to read a map online, it really doesn't teach the kids anything, particularly with theme. After all the hunting, Max, the ring boy, disappears. No one seems concerned, and the wedding goes on without a hitch, leaving kids to wonder what a ring boy does, other than lose wedding rings. It also seems odd that no one went to find out where Max had disappeared to for the ceremony especially if he was supposed to play a part in the wedding. Not recommended for libraries and not terrific use of money to buy for home use either I don't feel. One more comment: every other author I interacted with at ALA was delightful making the contrast with Ms. Wells all the more disappointing.
My daughter picked this out at the library and wanted to read it last night. It ended up being a cute book. I was able to actually make it interactive. There were lift-the-flaps showing the GPS on the bunnyphone. I would ask my daughter to find the dot showing where they were. And at the beginning of the book the grandma tells them that when they hear the wedding bells, they have to make it to the chapel (it was shown on the map and I pointed it out to my daughter). So as soon as we heard the wedding bells, I asked my daughter where they needed to go. She's only 2 so she couldn't tell me "the chapel), but she pointed to the room! I was so excited to see her remembering and comprehending things from the story! This is why I read to her every night! It was a proud parent moment. =)
Overall it was a fun read and a nice interactive book to read with your child.
This book is AWFUL. The story is just incredibly lazy and boring, and meanders aimlessly along until it gets to its lackluster conclusion. I made the classic rookie mistake of not screening this one before I read it to my story time group of 3 and 4 year olds, and as I was reading it to them I realized, with utter horror, that it was a festering turd of a story wrapped in a deceptively cute package. The kids had no interest in it and, quite frankly, neither did I. It's a shame that a Max and Ruby book couldn't be a sure bet, but I guess Rosemary Wells just ran out of things to say in this one.
Max and Ruby are getting ready to go to the wedding. Max isn't interested - he's just interested in his Gob Smackers. They find the wedding and then must search for the ring with the use of Grandmother's Bunnyphone. I liked the Bunnyphones that had flaps that can be opened - a modern and interactive touch.
Max & Ruby , the bunny siblings, are to attend the Warthog's wedding. Ruby is a flower girl, and Max is the ring bearer. Ruby is excited, and Max isn't. He only wants to play with his gob smacker. Read what happens as the ring is eaten by the gob smacker, then spat into the laundry chute, and the hunt for it throughout the hotel before the wedding starts.
This seems to be happening a lot lately: I buy the latest book from a well-respected, long-time children's author only to be disappointed with the book. Are they just phoning it in now? I've got to stop thinking that just because it's the latest book from (fill in the blank), I must buy it for the library!
I think it would have better without the lift-the-flap phones. Max & Ruby are usually nice simple stories and there's no reason to try to "modernize" them!