Max Finder is a dedicated fact collector. He loves all facts, the common along with the obscure. In these collected casebooks, readers can follow along on Max’s cases (usually ten per book) and also test their own mystery-solving abilities. Max Finder is billed as an “interactive comic,” with asides containing skill-sharpening brain puzzles to strengthen readers’ detecting skills along with the main mystery stories. All of the stories in the collected casebooks of Max Finder originally appeared in OWL Magazine, and volumes one and two were awarded the 2007 and 2008 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers.
Each story revolves around Max Finder and his best friend, Alison Santos, as they work together to solve mysteries involving their classmates. Each story is, on average, four pages, followed by a skill test. The mysteries are presented in common graphic novel format. At the end of each case, the readers are prompted to solve the case and given the page number where they can find the solution (given in text only). The solution usually explains who did it, gives examples of the clues that the reader should have put together, and also explains why some characters may have appeared guilty but in fact are innocent and why. There is also usually a sentence at the end explaining what the guilty party’s fate was when confronted by Max and Alison.
The first collected casebook features cases about a missing baseball card, a scratched CD, a smashed stereo, a soap-selling competition gone foul, a mystery on a ski hill, a missing movie, a vandalized art sculpture, an escaped snake, a bicycle bandit, and even a werewolf. As an older reader familiar with mystery tropes, I can say from the first volume I correctly solved 7.5 mysteries (for one I only figured out one of the two perpetrators!) and missed the solution for the other two cases. I found that most of the stories did provide enough clues, as long as the reader was willing to not just read the text but pay attention to the art (and the background images) as well. So the Max Finder series successfully incorporates a mingling of text and art, the way all great graphic novels should. The rest of the collected casebooks pretty much follow the same format—ten mysteries for readers to solve.
The art in the first three volumes is drawn by Michael Cho. From volume four onward, the art is taken over by Ramon Perez. I am not sure which art style I like best. In the latter volumes, Max and Alison look more like the 12-year-old kids they are than elementary school students, as they appear in the first volumes. However, in some scenes they look a little too old for their age! There are other changes to the latter volumes as well that make them more interesting. The character bios are now included at the beginning of the book, which is very helpful for new readers to get acquainted with characters. In each volume they are presented in a different visual manner (in one they are part of a top secret file; in another they are like Facebook profiles). The newer volumes also now include not only 10 graphic novel mysteries but, on average, three text-based stories mixed in as well. The solutions also appear right at the end of each story on the following page. This is nice for readers so that they don’t have to flip through pages to find the solution—they can just read the book in normal page order. The last change is in volume seven, which also includes lessons for teachers, showing how Max Finder can be used in a classroom.
Overall, there is nothing really controversial about Max Finder. In fact, Max seems to have a very diverse school, with students of all races and ethnicities. Unfortunately, having so many characters means that there isn’t really much character development—mystery solving is the main focus in this series. The mysteries are pretty tame—mainly missing items with very little elements of violence. Overall, if you have young kids who like mysteries but aren’t ready to move up to chapter books yet, this graphic novel series is a pretty good choice. A variety of short mysteries per volume with sometimes easy solutions and sometimes more tricky solutions, combined with brain twisters and (in the later volumes) some all-text based stories, too, makes for a fun read for beginning mystery fans.
Max Finder Mystery Collected Casebooks, Vols. 1-7
by Liam O’Donnell
Art by Michael Cho
ISBN: 9782895791164
Owlkids Books, 2009
Publisher Age Rating: 8-13
Volume 2
by Liam O’Donnell
Art by Michael Cho
ISBN: 9782895791218
Owlkids Books, 2009
Publisher Age Rating: 8-13
Volume 3
Liam O’Donnell
Art by Michael Cho
ISBN: 9782895791492
Owlkids Books, 2009
Publisher Age Rating: 8-13
Volume 4
Craig Battle
Art by Ramon Perez
ISBN: 9781897349809
Owlkids Books, 2010
Publisher Age Rating: 8-13
Volume 5
Craig Battle
Art by Ramon Perez
ISBN: 9781926818122
Owlkids Books, 2011
Publisher Age Rating: 8-13
Volume 6
Craig Battle
Art by Ramon Perez
ISBN: 9781926973210
Owlkids Books, 2012
Publisher Age Rating: 8-13
Volume 7
Craig Battle
Art by Ramon Perez
ISBN: 9781926973678
Owlkids Books, 2013
Publisher Age Rating: 8-13
