diff --git a/01/joeriksson/test_wordvalue.py b/01/joeriksson/test_wordvalue.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0a2ae9bb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/01/joeriksson/test_wordvalue.py
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+import unittest
+
+from data import DICTIONARY, LETTER_SCORES
+from wordvalue import load_words, calc_word_value, max_word_value
+
+TEST_WORDS = ('bob', 'julian', 'pybites', 'quit', 'barbeque')
+
+class TestWordValue(unittest.TestCase):
+    
+    def test_load_words(self):
+        words = load_words()
+        self.assertEqual(len(words), 235886)
+        self.assertEqual(words[0], 'A')
+        self.assertEqual(words[-1], 'Zyzzogeton')
+        self.assertNotIn(' ', ''.join(words))
+
+    def test_calc_word_value(self):
+        self.assertEqual(calc_word_value('bob'), 7)
+        self.assertEqual(calc_word_value('JuliaN'), 13)
+        self.assertEqual(calc_word_value('PyBites'), 14)
+        self.assertEqual(calc_word_value('benzalphenylhydrazone'), 56)
+
+    def test_max_word_value(self):
+        self.assertEqual(max_word_value(TEST_WORDS), 'barbeque')
+        self.assertEqual(max_word_value(), 'benzalphenylhydrazone')
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+   unittest.main() 
diff --git a/01/joeriksson/wordvalue-template.py b/01/joeriksson/wordvalue-template.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f92b2eb87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/01/joeriksson/wordvalue-template.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+from data import DICTIONARY, LETTER_SCORES
+
+def load_words():
+    """Load dictionary into a list and return list"""
+    pass
+
+def calc_word_value():
+    """Calculate the value of the word entered into function
+    using imported constant mapping LETTER_SCORES"""
+    pass
+
+def max_word_value():
+    """Calculate the word with the max value, can receive a list
+    of words as arg, if none provided uses default DICTIONARY"""
+    pass
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    pass # run unittests to validate
diff --git a/01/joeriksson/wordvalue.py b/01/joeriksson/wordvalue.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..536d40381
--- /dev/null
+++ b/01/joeriksson/wordvalue.py
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+from data import DICTIONARY, LETTER_SCORES
+
+
+def load_words():
+    """Load dictionary into a list and return list"""
+    return_list = []
+    with open(DICTIONARY, "r") as file:
+        for line in file:
+            return_list.append(line.strip("\n"))
+
+    return return_list
+
+
+def calc_word_value(word):
+    """Calculate the value of the word entered into function
+    using imported constant mapping LETTER_SCORES"""
+    scores = 0
+    for char in word:
+        try:
+            scores += LETTER_SCORES[char.upper()]
+        except KeyError:
+            continue
+
+    return scores
+
+
+def max_word_value(list_of_words=load_words()):
+    """Calculate the word with the max value, can receive a list
+    of words as arg, if none provided uses default DICTIONARY"""
+    value_dict = {}
+
+    for word in list_of_words:
+        value_dict[word] = calc_word_value(word)
+    max_word = sorted(value_dict, key=value_dict.get, reverse=True)
+    return "".join(max_word[:1])