Max's Ride (Max and Ruby)
PreSAMax is back, or at least retooled for the 21st century. Max's Ride and Max's Toys first appeared in 1979, while Max's Bath and Max's Bedtime both have a 1985 copyright. The texts for the most part read the same. The typeface has been changed from sans serif to serif. In Max's Ride, the concept words are now designed to reflect their meaning. So "down" now moves down the page and "under" dips under the line of text. Max's errant baby carriage hits a bump rather than a clothes basket. As for the illustrations, those bouncing baby bunny buns seem to have slipped south. Max is more of a dumpy pyramid shape with enormous feet and a softer contour line. The books are a bit larger and the color palette a tad lighter. Some of the facial expressions seem to give a different emotional emphasis. Purists may feel even Wells can't do better than the originals and shouldn't try. Still, more Max is better than less and Wells's special brand of deadpan humor is always welcome.AJudith Gloyer, Milwaukee Public LibraryCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.