Alex and his dog Max are true friends--the kind that share each other's
excitement, comfort each other when they are sad, wait together when
parents are away, and have fun wherever they are. Alex is learning that
every good relationship is a two-way street. By observing and listening
to his dog, by sharing good times and bad, he and Max are earning each
other's love and devotion. Parents will appreciate the information about
animal communication and the dog-child bond that they will find at the
end of Max Talks to Me. Children will want to share Max and Alex's
adventures and friendship over and over as they read the gentle,
engaging story and look at the beautiful illustrations.
Author Claire Buchwald lives with her husband, three children, dog,
and cat in Bloomington, Minnesota. The author of The Great
Mitzvah-Go-Round (ArtScroll, 2002), co-written with her husband Larry
Bogoslaw, and The Puppet Book (Plays Inc., 1990), Buchwald is
currently completing a nonfiction book on the power of imagination,
reading, and pretend play in children's lives. Buchwald, who has a PhD
in communication from the University of California, San Diego, believes
that children deserve the finest of writing because they are
complicated, intelligent, full of questions, and strongly connected to
the powerful capacities of imagination and awe.
Artist Karen Ritz is the illustrator of Daddy's Song by Leslea
Newman (Henry Holt and Company, spring 2007) and forty other
award-winning children's titles. She has been a full-time illustrator of
books and magazines since 1989 and teaches classes for teachers and
librarians about visual language and the art of children's books. Her
art for Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express appears as an animated
feature on public television's Reading Rainbow.
