My main quibble with Mister Max is that it lacks a certain urgency. Max does not have magical resources or superpowers instead, he uses his wits and logic to find solutions and set things right, figuring out not only facts but reasons and motivations, and helping others to figure out what it is that they truly want and need.

Mister Max is a charming book, with a main character who is good-hearted, caring, and endlessly inventive. Max is a chameleon, and as he slips into his different characters, he begins to solve problems for the townspeople he encounters, earning enough along the way to retain his independence and managing to help the people he cares for in different ways as well. But how can a 12-year-old survive on his own - and what happened to his parents? Max stumbles onto a good thing, realizing that by enacting the parts he’s seen his father play so many times, he can assume any persona he needs: town official, humble laborer, stuffy bureaucrat, ardent detective.

(His house is right next door to Grammie’s, so it’s not that dramatic a separation, after all). Left behind, Max determines that his best course is independence, so even though his grandmother (Grammie) wants to take him in and care for him in his parents’ absence, Max decides to live under his own roof and support himself by any means possible. Max and his parents are due to set sail from their unnamed town on a luxurious ocean-liner headed for India, but on the day of departure, Max shows up at the docks at the appointed time only to discover that his parents have gone already - and that the ship they were meant to board does not actually exist. Max enjoys the show but likes his place on the sidelines - until a mysterious letter arrives offering Max’s parent a too-good-to-be-true opportunity for fame and fortune, which they immediately accept. Max, age 12, is the son of two successful, larger-than-life parents who run their own theater company and bring their characters to life day after day. There’s a lot to love in this middle-grade novel about a very smart boy looking for solutions. Book Review: Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things by Cynthia Voigt

Mister max the book of lost things