Backyard students enjoyed the following story so much that lead teacher Renee and I had the children begin building their own word collections:
Max's Words by Kate Banks. Illustrated by Boris Kulikov
When Max's brothers won't share their stamp and coin collections with him, he decides to start his own collection -- of words! Max cuts out or copies words he knows, words that make him feel good, words that he hears, etc. Max and his brothers soon realize they can't do much of anything with the stamp and coin collections but they can create thoughts, sentences, and stories with all the words Max has collected.
