Max and the Millions: 1

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I loved the summer school group (I won't spoil it, but they are hilarious), and the two best-characterised Floor people have a predictable relationship and story arc but it works alongside other fresh features.

Max and the Millions by Ross Montgomery Max and the Millions by Ross Montgomery

This book was ridiculous fun! With sugar-crazed five-year-old-girl army, noble steed fleas, carrot thefts, sparkle-unicorn onesies, and a headmaster I would love to have pushed into a dustbin, Max's adventure is all kinds of hilarious. It also does a nice job of outlining some basic deaf awareness skills and some of the difficulties that deaf children face. I especially loved how receptive Sasha was to some of these things and the little nods to how the two boys adapted their communication to ensure both understood each other. I would definitely have preferred Max to have sign language knowledge or have used alternative communication with Sasha (such as writing) rather than him having lip-reading superpowers that enabled him to understand basically everything Sasha said (that's very unrealistic - only about 30% of speech can be lipread, and that's without accents coming into the mix). It's also rather inappropriate to have the hearing kid teaching the d/Deaf kid to sign. Despite this, I enjoyed how Max's hearing aids were an important part of the story and the focus on him making friends and developing confidence in himself and his ability to communicate. Sasha was wonderful, as was his sister and her sparkle-unicorn minions. Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry. There on the floor he finds a pile of sand . . . and in the sand is Mr Darrow’s latest creation . . . a tiny boy, no bigger than a raisin, Luke, Prince of the Blues. And behind the tiny boy . . . millions of others – a thriving, bustling, sprawling civilization! Ten-year-old Max feels like an outsider at St Goliath’s. He is deaf, and while this doesn’t need to be a problem, the unlikable head ensures that it is, singling him out with a special seat in assembly and showing him off like an exhibit to visitors. He’s also clearly neglected to ensure Max’s peers understand how to foster normal, meaningful relationships with someone who happens to be deaf. As much of the story is about the tiny people and their inability to get along- with multiple threats of violence. Pupils will be able to relate their own experiences of not getting along to this novel.When Mr Darrow disappears and has still not reappeared at the end of the summer holidays, Max begins to worry. Escaping the Sparkle Unicorn Club for little girls which has been hosted by the school over the summer, Max goes to Mr Darrow's room and discovers a tiny civilisation has come to life and grown all over Mr Darrow's room. But the miniature world is on the brink of war and Max must team up with his roommate Sasha and tiny King Luke to save the miniature world from the school's horrible headmaster. In my opinion, this novel is definitely an adventure novel, best suited for those looking from excitement and elements of humour from their reading. Max was deafened at age four, and initially mainstreamed at a small school that provided communication support. (Note that elementary schools generally have more support and peer interactions are less complex, so this is highly realistic.) But then Max is sent to a large boarding school with no support. Max is used to spending time alone – it’s difficult to make friends in a big, chaotic school when you’re deaf. He prefers to give his attention to the little things in life . . . like making awesome, detailed replica models.

Max and the Millions by Ross Montgomery | Waterstones

After all his kindness, Max feels he owes Mr Darrow. Can he save the tiny people from war? Can he find out what happened to Mr Darrow? And most of all, can he keep Mr Pitt, the evil headmaster away from Mr Darrow’s room while he does it? The day before summer vacation, Max’s closest friend at boarding school disappears, leaving behind his amazing model collection and a handful of sand on his bedroom floor. Like Max, the eccentric janitor Mr. Darrow is a genius at building tiny models. Eight weeks later, Max finds that the sand has magically transformed into a whole desert kingdom–filled with millions of tiny people! A fast-paced and enjoyable adventure that encourages readers to appreciate the small things in life.

He is singled out by Mr. Pitt, who interacts with him patronizingly and shows him off to visitors like he's a circus attraction. Mr. Pitt raises his voice and overenunciates at Max, and does things like having a chair set up at the front of assembly with a sign in large red letters, "special seat." Every deaf child knows a well-meaning but clueless adult like Mr. Pitt. Without his aids, Max believes that “he would have to rely on lip-reading alone from now on.” This, despite his explicit knowledge that signed languages exist, and the fact he can read and write fluently. He uses gesture and writing multiple times throughout, so he's not clueless or helpless. It's not too difficult to at least come up with a signed system (like a visual Morse code). The melodrama of this statement is, of course, childlike, but again, it becomes a non-issue in that Mr. Darrow is able to create magical hearing aids that practically dissolve all communication barriers. When a school caretaker mysteriously disappears, leaving behind a small pile of sand, a student is drawn into an extraordinary adventure. Then Mr Darrow, the school caretaker and fellow modeller, goes missing. Max must follow his parting instruction: ‘Go to my room. You’ll know what to do.’ When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.

Max and the Millions | BookTrust

For my final book I thought I would try a book that was more light hearted, and Ross Montgomery’s book delivered. Seeing how the ‘floor people’ inhabit the room and survive in it is highly creative, from the models and bins being used as homes and flies being used as war machines. The mythology that is developed in this world, such as the book of the floor, to the janitors clothes being seen like holy temple is also very engaging and adds depth to this world. Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment. What kid hasn’t pretended there are microscopic people living microscopic lives right under our noses?

Synopsis

All this is to say that we start off with a perfectly realistic representation of a deaf and mainstreamed child. Once the magic comes into play, the deafness remains realistic, but the hearing aids take on magical qualities through the ministrations of Mr. Darrow, who is some kind of technological genius. Fantastic premise, nice to have a hearing impaired hero, loved the multi-perspective narrative. This would make a really effective children's TV series. Alongside the adventure, and with a light hand, Montgomery successfully touches on challenges such as coping with buzzing hearing aids, lazy assumptions about deafness, and people’s inept attempts to communicate better by shouting. Deaf reader reviewing books with deaf characters. This book is listed on my ranked list of books with deaf characters.