About the Book
You've never had a science teacher like this! Max Axiom is a super-cool super-scientist. Using powers he acquired in a freak accident, Max demonstrates and explains science in ways never before seen in the classroom. Whether shrinking down to the size of an ant or riding on a sound wave, Max can do whatever it takes to make science super cool and accessible.
About the Author :
Agnieszka Biskup is a writer and editor based in Chicago. She is a former science editor at the Boston Globe as well as a Knight Fellow at MIT, where she studied science journalism. She served as managing editor of the children's magazine Muse and has written numerous children's books in addition to many articles for newspapers, magazines, and websites. Her books have received awards from Learning magazine, the Association of Educational Publishers, the Society of School Librarians International, and have been chosen as Junior Library Guild selections. She is also a winner of the 2015 American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award in the Writing for Children category.
Review :
A few months ago, Snow and I discovered that we were each planning to review different titles in the Max Esther: I should start by saying I don't use the science part of my brain very well. I was always okay with math. I excelled at literature, Language Arts, and History, but science - while interesting - was always more of a struggle for me. When my students come to the library to work on a science project and need my help, I'm always quick to point out that I'm there to help them find the information not explain it, because they really really don't want me to explain science to them! So I was really interested in seeing this series. I wanted to know if it could really help the scientifically challenged like me! And the answer... drum roll please... yes, it really does. Obviously, the ideas presented in this titles are topics that I've learned and possibly even mastered while I was in school. But I was in school a very long time ago. I see myself including these titles into my collection, and having students use the books to help them with ideas they're struggling with in class or I can see them using it to help them understand a topic for a project. The Max Axiom series is part of the Graphic Library collection from Capstone Press. They and other publishers that gear to the school market have created a number of similar type series with very similar product... I've always had issue with these series. For one, as a colleague once noted - they don't excel in art and they don't excel in story. I have to agree with this assessment and while there has been improvement in that area, I think the key factor that's missing here is heart. Take a nonfiction GN like the The United States Constitution: a Graphic Adaptation - the creators put their soul into the project (or at least part of their soul). I've seen great nonfiction GNs, but they're usually stand alone titles, like Amelia Earhart, or Satchell Paige (which is probably more of a historical fiction title.) These books feel like someone invested themselves in the project. I never got a sense of that from any of the 4 volumes of Max Axiom. Another issue I had with Max Axiom was that of late, as a reader and reviewer, I've been trying to concentrate more on how the art and text work together in a comic. I think it was something that was said at the GC4K panel at ALA that made tune into this more. I'm much more of a textual based person, and the art has always been secondary to me. Yet, in reality, this doesn't work with comics. In a solid comic, the art moves the text along. I never got that sense when reading Max Axiom. Rather, the series was just capitalizing on a popular format to entice kids to read and they could have used the standard illustrated book format. I still contend, they really do explain the science well in an accessible manner, but it's not the pictures that do most of the explaining it's the text. There isn't a balance between the art and text. Snow: I see what you mean about text and art not working well together. That's something I try to look for, but there are times when it bothers me more than others. For some reason, Max Axiom is not one of the series that gets to me. I know that they're just using the graphic novel format, but I've seen worse cases of cashing in (for example, the hideous adaptations of the Box Car Children books). For me there were enough moments in Max Axiom where the creators were obviously trying to keep from simply having static panels with text boxes above them. In The Surprising World of Bacteria there is a panel with a picture of a glacier. Rather than just showing an ice sheet, the ice is falling off, adding motion to the scene. A Crash Course in Forces and Motion tries hard to make sure that the physics principles are illustrated, not just mentioned. How do your students like the series? Do they find them useful? Do they think they are interesting to read? Does it feel to them like they are being pandered to by havi-- "Good Comics for Kids Blog - School Library Journal"
I'm in love - or, better yet, my son is in love! We've had the opportunity to review graphic science books on all sorts of topics that are fun and easy to read. Comic book style science sounds really fluffy doesn't it? Believe it or not, the Max Axiom series is full of "real" science that goes deep enough to be appropriate for any upper elementary/early middle school child. My son is a less-than-zealous textbook reader. (Picture eyes glazing over and giant yawns.) After reading - or being read to - from a textbook, he recalls very little of the information. Over the years, I've turned science into hands-on unit studies and supplemented with lots of library books, which has worked quite well. During one of these unit study times, I came across Max Axiom and wanted to know more. I found that Capstone Press offers many, many Max Axiom books, and boy were my son and I excited! Twenty-four books total cover the areas of biology/botany, chemistry, physical and earth science. In each book, Max Axiom (a scientist with super powers), goes on an adventure to learn all about the topic at hand. He can shrink to the size of bacteria and whiz through the human body, or go back in time to learn more about a famous scientist of the past. All of this in a 32 page comic book! (When I say comic book, don't think of flimsy pages, these are "real" books.) http: //thecurriculumchoice.com/2011/07/max-axiom-graphic-science-books/-- "Curriculum Choice blog"
Super scientist Max Axiom will shrink himself down to microscopic size to show you the world of bacteria firsthand. The resulting journey is essentially an introduction to basic bacteriology and genetics in a comic book format appropriate for the junior high school level. The book touches briefly on the invention of the microscope and then moves quickly to describing the basic types of bacteria and how bacteria move and survive. It also covers basic genetics and immunology terminology, including the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, bacterial reproduction, and resistance to antibiotics. Finally, it discusses a variety of both beneficial and pathogenic bacteria and the prevalence of bacteria in all environments on Earth. Overall, the illustrations are compelling and the scientifically accurate lessons are easy to follow. The text itself, however, is quite dry and doesn't take full advantage of the comic art to captivate students. Despite this shortcoming, the book may still be a welcome relief from more traditional textbooks in learning key terminology.-- "Science Books and Films"
There are lots of engaging resources available for teaching science to young kids, but one of the best is strangely little known: a terrific and highly entertaining series of science-themed graphic novels from Capstone Press, featuring a super scientist by the name of Max Axiom. Max Axiom, the story goes, was hiking one day when he was struck by megacharged lightning. The accident gave him the ability to shrink to the size of the atom, while his magic lab coat enables him to travel through space and time. These super powers mean that when he is, for instance, investigating viruses, he can stand on a human knee and watch as a scrape becomes infected. He can travel down inside a plant to show the role of chloroplasts in photosynthesis. Each book in the series features an adventure focused on one science theme, such as Cell Life, Chemical Reactions, or Electricity. Information is presented clearly and engagingly, and each book also features a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and pre-screened internet links. There are more than 15 books in the series altogether. Unfortunately, the Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library each only carry one of these well-designed books, but you can purchase four for the price of three on Amazon. http: //www.examiner.com/homeschooling-in-new-york/max-axiom-graphic-novels-make-learning-science-fun-- "Examiner.com"
This volume in the Graphic Science series includes discussions of the discovery of the life-form, good and bad bacteria, and standard public health routines related to their containment and, when positive, use. The guide through all of this, Max Axiom, is described in between the final glossary and the index, so readers may want to head to the end pages first to get a clear sense of his persona. Brightly colored artwork and correct, if brief, information make this a good purchase to introduce some basic science concepts, or where the series is already established.-- "Booklist Online"
