Max's Dragon Shirt (by Rosemary Wells)

Taken to the store by Ruby to replace his dirty, worn-out overalls, Max insists he wants a dragon shirt instead. It seems obvious that there is a lesson to be learned from the characters' mischievous behavior, but the moral gets lost in all the commotion. Max eventually tries on a dragon shirt, which becomes covered in ice cream, and therefore they are forced to buy it. Max does get what he wants, but not in the manner in which a parent would like.

Rosemary Wells creates adorable cartoon-type illustrations and includes greater background detail than most illustrators who adopt this style. She effectively portrays the emotions in the characters' faces, and the illustrations are clear enough to help beginning readers as they use clues from the pictures to decipher the text.