Maximillian Villainous

By Margaret Chiu Greanias

A monster must choose between villainy and kindness to keep his beloved pet bunny.

4.1/5 Goodreads · 214 ratings

40 pages

$16.99Save 7%

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Bookroo's summary

Maximillian Villainous, a monster with a kind heart, faces a dilemma when his mother demands he and his pet bunny become a mischievous duo. To keep his furry friend, Max must navigate the world of villainy, but his true nature might hold the key to acceptance. Can Max prove that kindness trumps trickery and win his family's approval? Join Max and his bunny in a humorous adventure where embracing one's true self becomes the most daring act of all.

From the publisher

For anyone who loved Leonardo, the Terrible Monster, this is a humorous and important book about learning to follow your heart and proving that kindness can outweigh villainy any day.

Maximillian Villainous is a monster who doesn’t have the heart to be a villain. His famous family pulls pranks on the likes of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, and Max spends his time undoing them. So when he brings home a bunny to be his sidekick, Max’s disapproving mother hatches a plan. She challenges Max and the bunny to become a devious duo; otherwise . . . the bunny hops. If they want to stay together, Max and the bunny have no choice but to go against their nature. They blunder into villainy with comical effect until Max discovers that embracing his good heart may just be the key to pulling off the most devious deed of all and winning his family’s acceptance.

Delightfully fun and irreverent, Maximillian Villainous is an empowering story about embracing one’s true self and finding acceptance. Up and coming illustrator Lesley Breen Withrow brings the characters to life with bold and colorful illustrations in a style reminiscent of Richard Scarry.

At a glance

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 40
Reading age: 4–8
Audience: Picture

Themes & topics

Books about being yourself Books about bunnies and rabbits Books about helping others Books about kindness Books about monsters

Good to know

Stories behind the story

What inspired the name "Maximillian Villainous"?

Max, the main character, was born into a famous villainous family. But he is the opposite of villainous. He is kind, thoughtful, and always doing good. In the story, he is up against his family's expectations for who they want him to be. So I wanted to show the weight of their expectations by giving him an impressive, villainous-sounding name. By Margaret Chiu Greanias (author)

Were there any pivotal changes that your story/illustrations underwent throughout the writing/editing process?

When I wrote Maximillian Villainous, I pictured characters like those in the Addams family -- kind of creepy human characters. When Lesley Breen Withrow (the illustrator) first rendered the characters, she sketched them as wolves/foxes, which was fantastic because it was so different than what I had pictured. In the end, we decided to make the Villainous family into monsters, and I think that opened the book up for fun humor in the illustrations and bold, colorful, and unique-looking characters. By Margaret Chiu Greanias (author)

Are there any details of Maximillian Villainous that you particularly love that readers should watch for?

I love all the details that Lesley Breen Withrow added -- especially the whimsy of what's going on in the bunny underground and the food on the Villainous family dinner table (I loved the spaghetti worms and eyeballs so much that I had to recreated them for my launch party goodie bags!). By Margaret Chiu Greanias (author)

For readers who can't stop at one