First things first, Max Counts to a Million is utterly brilliant. Writing for the 7-9 age bracket is a balancing act of plot, vocabulary, humour and depth; keeping the book accessible without sacrificing complexity. Jeremy Williams has produced a debut that will be devoured by children but also loved by parents and teachers too. Max is a typical eight-year-old, happily pootling along through life when March 2020 arrives. Suddenly all the talk is of new words like ‘pandemic’, the supermarket feels weird with half-empty shelves and the adults are telling Max not to worry while behaving in worrying ways. There are many things here that children (and adults) will immediately identify with from the start of the pandemic: not seeing grandparents, cancelled birthday parties, teachers’ anger at the fun new game ‘coronavirus tag’, school closures and finally lockdown. To begin with, Max, a pretty bouncy and out-going character, is relatively unfazed. The sun is shining, his dad (an ear, nose and throat doctor) is home more, Max is allowed to ride his bike on the traffic-free roads, and, best of all, his mum (a nutritionist) relaxes some of her healthy eating rules. But then Dad moves into a hotel to help in the hospital, and Mum is busy working from her home office/bedroom corner. When everyone starts getting on each other’s nerves and when Max is sent to his room to ‘count to one hundred and calm down’, he just decides to keep going. What follows is a funny and light journey through Max’s counting odyssey, a way to manage the ups and downs. Max’s epic count also makes a handy metaphor: “Sometimes, just keeping on going makes you a hero”. Short chapters and large spacing make Max Counts to a Million perfect for newly confident Y3-4 readers. The books also wears it’s learning incredibly lightly – in the 6 short pages of Chapter 4, it manages to explain the etymology of the word pandemic and how viruses work through the metaphors of train travel and Minecraft, while also being funny and moving on the plot. Max counts to a Million would make a fantastic class reader for teachers wishing to gently explore the impacts of the pandemic. There is a QR code to access teacher discussion notes, with activities include ‘Recognising and naming emotions and feelings’ and ‘Managing emotions and dealing with change’. Reviewer: Carol Carter