Flu Shot Fidgets (The Secret Games of Maximus Todd)

Gr 2-5--This humorous series focuses on Max, a wiggly third grader with "super fidgets" who develops quirky strategies to control himself and navigate different situations. Max must calm himself down in a soccer game against the school bully in Big Game Jitters. In Flu Shot Fidgets, Max plays a game where he makes animal noises in order to distract himself from a visit to the doctor's office. In Frantic Friend Countdown, Max desperately wants to befriend the new kid at school and plays a game to make him say his name five times. Hyper to the Max finds Max rhyming with everyone he encounters, including his frenemy Mandy Beth. Each book is written at a second grade reading level and features kid-friendly illustrations and easy-to-read text designed for readers with dyslexia. VERDICT The series deals with the subject of Max's unnamed disability in a lighthearted, tactful way and will be entertaining to both lower and upper elementary school students.

"The target audience will surely have no trouble relating to the storylines. The blend of fun graphics by Graham Ross, with varying sizes and designs of text in the quickly paced 96 pages, will be appealing to both beginning and reluctant readers.

The series is written by a teacher who clearly has insight into the mind of a child who feels the type of anxiety that Max does, presumably because she has encountered some throughout her career. While it may be rare to have a child as young as Max display the self-awareness and strength of will that he does, perhaps these books will serve as inspiration to children facing the same difficulties with their own Super Fidgets.

The four books were published concurrently for Formac's First Novels Series, in a format that should prove to be attractive to young readers."