Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

From Booklist
Gr. 7---9. Patterson, best known for his dark, gritty thrillers featuring psychologist Alex Cross, first dipped his toes in the waters of children's literature with SantaKid (2004). Aiming at an older youth readership this time and reworking ideas and characters that appeared first in his adult novels When the Wind Blows (1998) and The Lake House (2003), he delivers an action-packed cross between Gertrude Chandler Warner's Boxcar Children and Marvel Comics' X-Men. Fourteen-year-old Max (short for Maximum Ride) leads an usual group of children, escapees from an institution that designed them by "grafting avian DNA onto human genes." Yup, these kids have wings. When Angel, the smallest of the group, is kidnapped by mutants and taken back to the "school," Max and her family determine to get her back--no matter what. Patterson occasionally forgets his audience here, as evidenced by his sardonic tone and such glib adult asides as "they found their prey: moi," but he's picked a comfortable formula (orphans protecting one another and making a home together), which he's cushioned with an abundance of slavering beasts, childhood heartaches, and unresolved issues--all in preparation for the sequel in 2006, in which Max will, presumably, assume the role she's been assigned here: savior of the world. Expect the Patterson name to attract a crossover audience of both adults and youth. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, Angel, and Maximum: six kids who are 98% human and 2% bird. They grew up in cages, living like rats, but now they're free. When the bloodthirsty Erasers -- half men, half wolves genetically engineered by sick and sinister scientists -- kidnap little Angel, the Flock embarks on a rescue mission full of nonstop action, adventure, and soul-seeking -- not to mention a little bit of saving the world on the side.


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices