Freak the Mighty

While this review indicates a 2019 read date, I have read it every year since then.

I read this over and over in middle school. Freak and I had so much in common! Not the same condition, though. I was a sick kid who is now a sick adult, but thanks to Disability Twitter and Disability YouTube, I have a community. I didn't before, so I lived vicariously through Freak, or tried. When I read this again today as an adult, I thought I'd pick up on things differently. Not really. The book is accessible to both kids and adults, which feels kind of rare. I admire the author for this. The movie adaptation is really faithful and it was so great to see the book come to life. The author's fine with it, even. I watched some of his videos on YouTube. show more The book warmed my heart, made me laugh, gave me hope, made me nervous and scared, then broke my heart. I remembered everything that happened but oh, I was still so sad. As an adult, I realized something I hadn't as a kid: Freak knew. He knew the whole time, and he made up an elaborate story to cope. I have so many feelings. I'm so glad this book was written, that I read it as a kid, and now. show less

A read aloud with emotional heft. Max is a giant of a kid, a misfit in school and in life because of his size, and with a learning disability that makes him feel slow and stupid. Max also carries very heavy baggage: his father is in prison for killing his mother, he lives with his grandparents, and bears the burden of an uncanny resemblance to the man known as Killer Kane. Max's world changes when Kevin moves in next door with his mother, the Fair Gwen. Max remembers Kevin from preschool as a tiny genius, a kid with a rare form of dwarfism who grows on the inside but not the outside. The two become inseparable friends, with wildly inventive play and heroic quests: together they are Freak the Mighty. My girls laughed and cried throughout show more the book, wincing at the brutalities and injustices of real life, and repeating after nearly every chapter:" I'm so glad they found each other!"

Curriculum: a terrific book for a read aloud or for literature circles, with discussion potential for empathy, and the realities of individuals with disabilities.

Philbrick, W. (1993). Freak the Mighty. New York, N.Y: Scholastic Inc. show less

Max and Kevin are unlikely friends. Max is afraid he's turning into his father, "Killer Kane"; at least that's what he hears whispered whenever he's around. Kevin, afraid of nothing even though he's only 2 feet tall, has courage and imagination enough for both of them. Max's life changes when he meets Kevin, the only one who doesn't treat him as though he's stupid. Kevin, who is blessed with genius-level intellect but numerous medical challenges, helps Max gain confidence in himself. Through a summer of adventures together, Kevin (known as Freak because his deformed body) rides around on Max's shoulders encouraging his creativity and building trust while they go on many "quests". Thus, with Max's strength and Kevin's imagination, Freak show more the Mighty is born. Max learns to face his fears about his family, bullies and school, where the words he reads have a tendency to twist themselves on the page. Kevin's greatest gift to Max is teaching him that remembering is a great invention of the mind, and that even the painful things are worth remembering. Max gives Kevin unconditional friendship and acceptance, two things he's never had before. When the unthinkable happens, Max realizes that remembering is sometimes all you have and that's a great gift.
These two characters grow and mature throughout the story. Many middle school kids will be able to relate to the insecurities and fears these characters face. Be ready for an ending that will leave you both happy and sad at the same time. show less

While reading this story, I was struck by its powerful message and the incredible use of point of view to connect with the reader. This tale focuses on the personal changes seen in one of the title characters: Maxwell, also known as Mad Max and ‘The Mighty’. The story is narrated by Max, and written in Max’s vernacular. The author wrote at Max’s educational level- that of an eighth grade boy, and used many terms unique to Max like ‘the underground’ for his bedroom and “The Fair Gwen” for the name of a neighbor. This was a powerful choice on the authors part, it allowed the reader to quickly connect with the main character because they felt like they were truly in his head.
Throughout this course, I have come to show more appreciate the importance of reading books with difficult or complicated endings. The ending of this story was not an easy one to swallow: the death of Max’s best friend was a surprise to Max, and because he was the narrator it was a surprise to the reader as well. At first, I was frustrated with the death because I chalked it up to a writers’ choice to add shock value to the tale. However, as I continued reading I was struck by how the death affected Max. He acknowledged the pain of the death, and then worked to continue his path of educational and affective growth despite the loss of his friend. For example he decided to write a novel when previously he had only expressed frustration with his perceived inability to write. This perseverance was a strong lesson for readers, one that I appreciated after finishing the book.
The message of this story is: little changes occur every day and add up to create large growth. show less

In my opinion, this is a phenomenal book. The language used throughout the story was spot on resembling a child’s tone of voice. The vocabulary used was perfectly embedded in the text to create a flow in the writing. Some examples include “reading books is the last thing I want to do, right after trimming my toenails with a lawn mower, gargling nails, and eating worms for breakfast.” Max tells the story from his perspective, which was really useful for creating an effective voice. A second example includes “another chance to prove I’m a butthead.” The terms Max uses in the story shows the audience that he is writing from the heart, and it is easier to comprehend his feelings from his point of view when it is written in first show more person. First person was valuable in this story because hearing Max’s feelings and thoughts for the entire year showed his dynamic character development. Using “I” or “me” is a great indicator that an author has used first person. First person is shown when Max says “there’s a cool place I go in my head sometimes.” It is also shown when he says “she’s scared of me.” Hearing what Max has heard and being able to visualize what he has seen in his life is extremely powerful in this story because it shows vulnerability and growth in his character. The characters were extremely believable and well developed. Max’s traits were very realistic considering the traumatic life experiences he went through. His “social-awkwardness” made sense with his learning disability as well as having to navigate life with no parents and no friends. Freak is amazingly brilliant, but suffers from physical impairments and is extremely small due to a disease he has. He is remarkable and becomes an amazing outlet for Max as well as Max does for Freak. Gwen is a great mother, but is skeptical of Max at the beginning like many other parents in the town would have or typically have been in the past. Grim and Gram were completely believable and took Max in after his mother was murdered and his father was incarcerated. The plot had suspense throughout the novel that made it difficult to put the book down. When Max was kidnapped by his father up until the end of the story when he lost his friend to his life threatening disease, the author tried to provide hope for the audience. show less

Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is a very good read equip with believable characters. Freak, for example, though very small in size, has a copious amount of intelligence. He knows almost every word in the dictionary and has created his own definitions. For example, the word “troglodyte” he defines as “someone who hates books.” Freak loves to ride the shoulders of his large friend Max. Max always happily allows Freak to guide him where to walk and what “quests” to go on. Max is aware that Freak always knows what to do and when they are faced in a sticky situation, Max states “Freak is giving me this look like he has no idea what's going on, and that look scares me…” Max can be assumed to be scared because Freak show more always has a plan, and in this instance he seemingly did not. Despite this, the two characters stayed true to self and eventually found many ways out of predicaments, including the time Freak sprayed a substance he made out of his science lab kit with a nerf gun at the eyes of a fiend threatening Max. Max in turn stayed true to himself by always staying with Freak. He was always a good friend and asked no questions when Freak wanted to go on peculiar adventures, even at 3:00am. He also always expressed his ideas and concerns with Freak’s medical procedures. Despite the fact that Max hated writing, he kept his friendship alive by writing all about their adventures in the form of a book, just like Freak asked of him.
I also enjoyed that Philbrick played upon a big key detail of the book, Freak’s various vocabulary words. Freak was always using complex words and teaching these words to Max. Freak even got them out of trouble with the principal by utilizing his dictionary words! For Christmas, Freak gave Max a dictionary of his favorite words, with his own definitions as previously discussed. Max loved the present more than any other, describing it as “the best, everything else is extra.” At the end of the story when Freak’s doctor is talking to Max about the disease he had, he mentioned that Freak knew all about his condition because he researched it in a medical dictionary. This fact allowed Max to believe the doctor because he knew utilizing the medical dictionary was exactly something Freak would do. I enjoyed how this one fact was consistently pivotal throughout the story.
The main point of the story was to not judge a person by their shell. Although very large and intimidating, Max was a very kindhearted boy. Although small and fragile, Freak was a genius. Max’s grandfather, nicknamed Grim, turned out to be a good role model for him and care for him deeply. Many of the characters were not how they seemed at first but ended up being very important in their own ways. show less

I loved Rodman Philbrick's "Freak the Mighty," and I would give it five stars. One aspect of the book that I particularly liked was that Max, the narrator, was a very sympathetic character to whom I found it easy to relate. Max's first-person, conversational narrative was written using language which I can easily imagine a typical 13 or 14-year-old boy using when relating a story to a friend. This conversational language includes asides to the reader like, "does that make any sense?" and exclamations used to convey emotion, such as, "like whoa! talk about laser beams!" Max also uses a variety of humorous descriptive phrases, like when he describes Grim as wearing a "whacked-by-a-hammer grin," and when he says that Mrs. Donelli's sour show more expression looks "like she stepped in something and she can't get it off her shoe." This type of language made me feel as if Max were actually speaking to me and telling me the story of his friendship with Kevin in his own words. The only difference between Max's language and the language a teenage boy would use in conversation, I found, was that Max uses a close first-person narration, meaning that he is candid about his inner thoughts and emotions. I believe that this form of narration made it even easier for me to connect to Max as a character, as I was able to know much more about him beyond that which he shares with his words and his actions. Another aspect of the book that I liked was the relationship between Max and Kevin. Individually, both boys are vulnerable to bullying and judgement, but together they overcome obstacles as a team, which Kevin names "Freak the Mighty." Max carries Kevin on his shoulders to compensate for Kevin's small size, while Kevin helps Max to realize his academic potential. As a team, the boys go on adventures, or "quests," to distract themselves from the harsh realities of everyday life. With Kevin, Max does not feel stupid because of his learning disability or destined to become a criminal like his murderer father, "Killer Kane." With Max, Kevin does not feel small or limited by his dwarfism and he is able to experience a relatively normal childhood despite knowing that he will die at a young age. While friendship is a central theme in the novel, I found the main message to be more individualistic. The "big idea" of the book is that everyone has the power to choose what kind of life to lead and what kind of person to become regardless of pre-existing labels and assumptions. Kevin teaches Max that he is smart and capable of learning, despite the fact that he was wrongly placed in the "L.D." class years ago. Through his friendship with Kevin, Max realizes that his enormous size and dark family history do not define him, and that he is able to be a gentle and kind person in spite of the fact that his father murdered his mother. With Max's hel, Kevin learns that his size does not have to be a limitation, and that he is capable of making a big difference in the world. Kevin uses his intellect to outsmart Killer Kane, thwarting the murderer's attempt to strangle both Max and Loretta to death. Although he is small, Kevin becomes a hero like King Arthur and Lancelot, whom he deeply admires. In all, I thought that "Freak the Mighty" is a fantastic story that is definitely worth reading. show less