View source for Max and the Won't Go To Bed Show by Mark Sperring and Sarah Warburton

{{infobox2
|title=Max and the Won't Go To Bed Show
|author=Mark Sperring and Sarah Warburton
|reviewer=Lorraine McDonald
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-0007468393 
|pages=32
|publisher=Harper Collins
|date=November 2013
|aznuk=0007468385
|aznus=0007468393
|cover=0007468385
|website=
|video=
|summary=A clever, witty and laugh out loud tale of one little boy’s bedtime performance. Great to read aloud, fun to listen to and look at the pictures …put your hands together and let’s hear a big round of applause for ‘Max and the Won’t Go To Bed Show’.    
}}
Prepare to unleash your inner Barnum with ‘Max and the Won’t Go To Bed Show’. You don’t read this book – you perform it. So, what’s it all about? Well, if you give me a drum roll (PLEASE!) … I will tell you.

Max, like many other little boys, does not like to go to bed. In this parody of a circus performance Max tames wild animals (the sartorially challenged, long suffering Brian the dog), performs magic tricks (making a glass of milk and a cookie disappear), braves the stairs of doom (self explanatory) and makes animals appear (stuffed ones that is). Max has more delaying tactics than the Moscow state circus has acrobats. Will he actually make it in to his bed and off to the land of nod?

This is a clever and witty, high energy, laugh out loud book. There’s a huge amount of fun to be had in reading it out. The text, by Mark Sperring, gives the reader a steer with large print indicating when extra drama is called for. The setting of the text within the pictures is pitch perfect and helps to maintain the pace through the book. This is a smashing introduction for youngsters to the versatility of language and the sort of book that can only engage children with the joy of the written and spoken word. 

The full page illustrations, by Sarah Warburton, are amusing. Max is a sweet faced anti-hero. Mum and Dad are a barely visible presence - seen only as arms dragging Max upstairs and as decapitated images in a photo frame. Max’s choice of bedtime stories (all ten of them) have humorous titles, some obviously so such as ‘The Tadpole Who Came To Tea’ and ‘Why? The Huge Book of Unanswerable Questions’; others less so - ‘The Rabbit Who Should Have Been Pulled From the Hat’ is one of Warburton’s offerings from early in her career that met with a rejection slip.
  
I think kids will adore this.  Of course they will.  Max is a thoroughly bad influence and inspiration for late night naughtiness! Children may need to be four plus to understand the concept of a circus parody and get the humour of this but even my very young boy enjoys the pictures and my own dramatic rendition.  This is an ideal book to share at bedtime – just make sure your little one is tucked very firmly in to their bed. 

If this appeals then we think that you might also enjoy [[Mabel and Me by Mark Sperring and Sarah Warburton|Mabel and Me]] by the same authors.

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[[Category:Mark Sperring]]
[[Category:Sarah Warburton]]