``It was a day when Max didn't feel like talking to anyone. He just sat on his front steps and watched the clouds gather in the sky.`` ``A strong breeze shook the tree in front of his house, and Max saw two heavy twigs fall to the ground.`` So begins this story of a young boy's introduction to the joys of making music. Max picks up the sticks and begins tapping out the rhythms of everything he sees and hears around him...the sound of pigeons startled into flight, of rain against the windows, of distant church bells and the rumble of a subway. And then, when a marching band rounds Max's corner, something wonderful happens. Brian Pinkney's rhythmic text and lively pictures are certain to get many a child's foot tapping, many a youngster drumming.