Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

The book that I read was Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. The main characters are Kevin also known as Freak, and Maxwell also known as Mighty. They call themselves that because Kevin is very smart but he also has a bad disease where his heart is too big for his body, sadly Kevin is very small. Why they call Maxwell, Mighty is because Maxwell is very tall and not only that he’s tall he also has a learning disability. Both of the boys are in the 9th grade. How the boys meet is when Maxwell was walking down the street and Kevin is trying to get this little toy down from a tree. Maxwell walked up and got the toy down for him. Later on in the book Kevin and Maxwell become best friends forever until Maxwell’s dad known as Killer Kane takes Maxwell into a vacant place and down into the basement. They call the dad Killer Kane because he killed his wife which is Maxwell’s mom. When the dad and Maxwell were in the basement, the dad ties Maxwell and one of the dads friend name Loretta Lee tried to help Maxwell. The dad caught Loretta and almost tried to kill her. When the dad was almost done choking Loretta, Kevin got a water gun and fill it with some chemicals the chemicals were baby powder, water, and vinegar. Then Kevin shot the dad in the face which made him let go of Loretta and made him cover his eyes long enough so that Kevin can fully untie Maxwell. After that Kevin and Maxwell made it out safe and sound. Later on in the week Kevin had his birthday, but when he got his present he got so happy and he had a heart attack. The family took them to the hospital, and Maxwell had to leave. The next day Maxwell went back to the hospital and found out that Kevin had died that same day. Maxwell was heart broken, but before Kevin died he had left Maxwell a book for him to write all of his adventures. One year after Maxwell got the book, he had already filled half of the book.

 I thought this book was very good and sad at the same time. I think this book will be recommended for children in the 4th-6th grade. I thought in the end it was very sad because when Kevin died. Also in the middle of the book I thought it was very sad too, because when Maxwell dad killed his mom and tried to kill his friend Loretta. I really liked this book a lot once I first read it I just couldn't stop reading it. This is my first book that i read by Rodman Philbrick and i think that he is a pretty good book writer.

 By: Llexis, 6th Grade Reader