ALA Booklist

Writing and drawing pictures in his journal, Max records his unhappiness about his parents' separation and his mother's dating, his annoyance with his older brother, and the love he has for cartooning, inventing, and science. Readers who find large blocks of text intimidating will welcome the illustrated pages here, whether Max is writing down four steps to avoid his teacher's notice, remembering what it's like to come home and find his mother on the phone with her boyfriend, or illustrating his latest inventions, such as Girl B-Gone and Slob-in-a-Can. Each page is crowded with Max's drawings, lines of text, and speech balloons, but the overall effect is colorful and engaging. His ongoing comic strip, featuring a weird little green hero called Alien Eraser, provides a quirky counterpoint to the main text. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny, the third volume in the Max Disaster series is very readable fare from the author-illustrator of the Amelia's Notebook series.

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

In his third book, young aspiring scientist and inventor Max observes his newly single mom's dating habits (he's not pleased). As in the first two volumes, Max relates his story through cartoon drawings (starring an alien eraser), sketches, and scientific experiments. Max's conflicting emotions are realistic and relatable, and the story offers up lots of humor.

School Library Journal (Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2010)

Gr 3-5 Max cannot imagine anything grosser than his mother dating again. His brother's pimples, overflowing toilets, and teachers dressed up like Little Bo Peep don't even compare. When his mom tries to talk to him about it, his answer is, "You're too old to date. Period. End of sentence." Things are changing so quickly that his usual coping mechanism of drawing comics isn't even making him feel better. The boy comes to understand, with a little help from a class on evolution, that change is inevitable, and he is left wondering what the future will bring for him. This story is told in a series of lists, comic panels, and illustrated text. The font in the comic panels' speech bubbles is extremely small, and the sequencing of text throughout the book is confusing. Some of the lists start on the bottom of the page, while others start at the top, and the overall effect is too busy. For a graphic novel with science involved, try Jarrett J. Krosoczka's "Lunch Lady" books (Knopf) or Eleanor Davis's The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook (Bloomsbury, 2009), and for family stories, Jimmy Gownley's "Amelia Rules" series (S & S) is a better choice. Stacy Dillon, LREI, New York City