Book Review Older-29th

Maximum Ride, the Angel Experiment; written by James Patterson.  Published by Little, Brown & Company; April 2005, 422 pages.

On a mountain in a cabin, live six very special people.  Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel are the names they have given themselves.  Their ages vary from elementary school ages to teenagers, but, they are still just kids.  They live by themselves. They take care of each other without parental direction or discipline; or especially love.  But, they started their life without either of those things and so far they are doing very well.

They are not ordinary kids.  They are 98% human and 2% bird.  They were born in a dark place, a place known only as the School.  This place, where they were treated like the experiments they were meant to be; kept in cages and subjected to tests and needle sticks on a regular basis, is where they escaped from a few years ago.  The School also did other experiments, trying out mutations from various animals and combining them with human embryos.  One of their fiercest creations is known as the Erasers, part wolf and part human that love the taste of birds.  These six kids have very special abilities in that they all can fly.  They each also have individual skills that seem to evolve and develop over time, often without them knowing and sometimes causing them discomfort in the evolution. 

Max and the gang think they are safe and fly out one morning in search of some berries or other fresh food that is provided by the mountain they live on.  Their morning is interrupted by Erasers.  They kidnap Angel and lead these kids on a journey across America, to the Death Valley, to California and then to New York.  And somehow, every time, Erasers track them down.  They are able to rescue Angel but they are frustratingly almost constantly harassed and endangered by the School and the Erasers that are in pursuit of them.

This is one of several youth novels by James Patterson, and though I had believed this to be a sequel to his previous books involving Max, this seems to be a series that will be taken in a new direction.  So, if you have read, When the wind Blows and The Lake House, do not expect Maximum Ride to take up where these left off.  It is enjoyable and engaging on its own.  So feel comfortable in letting your youths read this novel if you are one to let them explore flights of fancy and fantasy.