[.ca] Max And Ruby Maxs Chocolate Chicken (ISBN 0670887137)

From Amazon.com:
How we love Max--the mischievous toddler rabbit who is often battling wits and wills with his bossy-boots older sister Ruby. Now it's time for the siblings' Easter egg hunt! Just as the festivities are about to begin, a secretive Easter Bunny places a huge chocolate chicken in the birdbath. "I love you," Max innocently declares to the edible chicken he covets. "Wait Max," warns Ruby. "First we must go on an egg hunt. If you find the most eggs then you get the chocolate chicken." But Max, who is still young enough to be distracted by mud puddles and marching ants, can't possibly focus on finding a single egg. When it becomes obvious that Ruby has collected the most (if not all) of the Easter eggs, Max takes drastic measures--as the youngest sibling often will--and steals the chicken. Rosemary Wells's expressive, giggle-funny illustrations (along with the board-book format) make this a perfect Easter story for toddlers as well as preschoolers, who will delight in Max's blatant misbehavior and relish the inevitable happy ending. (Baby to preschool) --Gail Hudson

poor Ruby..:
..thinks her younger brother has stolen the only chocolate chicken!! I can imagine little brothers acting just like Max. Another my daughter loves to have read to her.

My kids love this book:
The best part about this book is realizing -- after several readings -- how Ruby, the older sister, tries to manipulate her little brother by telling him he has to win an egg hunt to win the chocolate chicken. But of course, big sister gets humbled (and her own chocolate chicken) in the end. This book is my kids' favorite Max and Ruby book, but they are all good, especially Bunny Cakes.

My favorite Easter book...:
I absolutely love this book. I am in school to be a teacher and found this book while doing a project and read it ten times. I laugh out loud each time I read it, it just gets better and better.

Love it or leave it.:
I think the previous reviewer (tabris02) has given good advice. This book will either resonate with you or it won't. We received it as a gift and were a bit puzzled by it, asking grandma, "What kind of lesson are you trying to teach our toddler?" The bulk of the story was cute, as Max mucked about in the yard while Ruby single-mindedly found every Easter egg. But the ending didn't sit well with me...selfishness with no remorse or consequences or even awareness of his sister's feelings. Years later, with three kids, I realize that siblings will learn to be competitive and selfish even without seeing those traits demonstrated in books. So, I've lightened up a bit. But I still don't find myself reaching for this book on our shelf. Of the Max and Ruby stories, I prefer Bunny Cakes. Another of our favorite Rosemary Wells books is Fritz and the Mess Fairy (Fritz is a slob who during one amazing night tries to make it up to his family by cleaning the entire house and fixing them breakfast in bed. In the process, he makes a huge mess again in the kitchen...but his efforts to improve himself and express his love to his family are very endearing!).

I'd recommend library-reading it first:
I found this Max book to be mean-spirited. My kids own just about all the other Max books and we enjoy them. My son can sing some of them (to his own tune) and my one-year-old could recite passages from a few of the board books. I like Max as a mischievous child, but in this one he seemed a little nastier than I felt comfortable sharing with my children. He breaks the rules and gets away with it. This isn't a hands-down non-recommendation of this particular book, but parents ought to be forewarned and maybe preview the book for free from the library before buying it. All of the other Max books are keepers and re-readers, but I found that for my particular household, this book was not a keeper even though we have thoroughly enjoyed all the others.