Gold!

by David Shannon, David Shannon (Illustrator)

Overview

A riotous retelling of the Midas myth by the Caldecott Honor-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of No, David!

Maximilian Midas was a peculiar little boy.
He didn’t much like chocolate and he didn’t play with toys.
The first word that he uttered when he was one year old
Wasn’t Mama, wasn’t Papa; what Maxie said was, “Gold!”

Max Midas isn’t like the other kids. Instead of trying to make friends, he decides to make millions and spends it all on what he loves best: GOLD. Gold statues. Gold fountains. Piles and piles of gold, and atop them all, a golden castle. But one day, things get lonely inside his shiny castle and Max finally learns that gold isn’t worth anything without friends and family by your side.

David Shannon, the Caldecott Honor—winning and New York Times bestselling author of No, David!, is back with a riotous romp that’s sure to be a beloved classic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593352274
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/06/2022
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	186,039
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

David Shannon is the internationally acclaimed author and illustrator of thirty-five books for children, including No, David!, a Caldecott Honor Book and his second New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year, and four more David picture books. Shannon's bestsellers include A Bad Case of Stripes, Duck on a Bike, and Too Many Toys. He lives in Southern California with his family.

Hometown:

Los Angeles, California

Date of Birth:

October 5, 1960

Place of Birth:

Washington, D. C. (Raised in Spokane, Washington)

Education:

B.A., Art Center College of Design

Editorial Reviews

07/04/2022

Maximilian Midas is a gold-obsessed, repp-tie-wearing redhead who presents as white; with a “touch/ For raking in the dough,” he pooh-poohs parental love and sells sips of lemonade at market price on the hottest days. When “plucky neighbor girl” Sadie, portrayed as Black, opens a lemonade stand “to help some needy kids,” Max sabotages her product, building a lemonade empire to acquire the literal mountain of gold he’s coveted from an early age. Unrepentantly isolated, mogul Max eats a heap of gold dust with his breakfast cereal and immediately turns into a solid gold statue. In nightmarish images (including a Twilight Zone–worthy extreme close-up), golden Max proves capable of a lone redemptive tear, and finishes the story as not only a loving offspring but apparently a conscious capitalist as well, enlisting Sadie to “help me/ use my millions/ To make a better world.” Shannon (Mr. Nogginbody Gets a Hammer) gets mixed results in casting the Midas myth as a critique of cold-blooded capitalism: if his exaggerated, even grotesque, art style fits the theme of excess, Sadie’s role in Max’s salvation feels misguided at best, and a closing line about making “millions more” does little to dismantle the capitalist myth. Ages 3–7. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

★ “Told in clever rhyming text and illustrated in vibrant oil paint (with lots of gold hues!), Shannon’s quirky cartoon characters lend humor and affection to one aspect of childhood and family.” –Booklist, starred review

From the Publisher

2022-06-22
A kid’s take on an ancient tale.

Maximilian Midas is the ultimate capitalist. Displaying an infantile obsession with his mother’s gold necklace, by the age of 7 he’s built a fortune, starting with a lemonade stand, then selling the beverage “in stores throughout the land.” Told in an inconsistently metered ABCB rhyme scheme, the story follows the light-skinned boy’s fantastical rise in fortune and continued exploitation of others: sabotaging his competition’s lemonade stand with a dead mouse, charging his parents rent, and finally retreating to a castle overflowing with gold at the top of a mountain, alone with his fortune. When Max gets the bright idea to sprinkle gold dust on his cereal, he, like his namesake, turns into a golden statue, immobile except for “a little tear that Max had saved / Since he was one year old.” He’s magically transformed back into flesh and blood, his gold disappearing into the ether. Max decides to become a more humanitarian capitalist, musing that “Gold can never make you feel / as good as being nice.” Shannon’s oil paintings are detailed and bold, adding a layer of grotesquerie to the already vulgar story. Blending overt moralizing with fantastical elements somewhat muddles the message here, especially since children are less prone to wealth hoarding than adults, and at the end of the book, “mak[ing] millions” is still presented as the solution to problems. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Ostentation without substance. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews