Maximum Ride, by James Patterson

Specifics
Maximum Ride: The Manga, Vol. 1, by James Patterson, Illustration by NaRae Lee
Published by Hachette Book Group, 2009

Target Audience
Lexile level GN380L
This book is for older students, probably around middle school age because of some of the themes.

Summary
This book is an adaptation of the novel by the same name, and the same author. It goes through about half of the first novel. It is about a group of children who are the result of scientific experimentation and gene splicing. They are kids who can fly. They have run away from the lab that had created them, and they are trying to stay hidden from those that are looking for them, but the lab sends these mutated wolf-men to find them. When they capture the youngest of the group, the rest have to go and save her.

Evaluation
This story is good because, while the characters in the book are technically different from "normal" humans, there has to be one character that each student can relate to. Because there is a girl who's in charge, a girl who loves fashion, a sweet little girl, a blind guy, a kid who loves explosions, and a guy who is the "broody" type, there is most likely going to be one character that everybody can relate to. The characters are portrayed both as individuals and as a group, which shows the power of teamwork and family. This story is realistic in that if there were bird-humans, they probably would have been born in a lab, and the scientists would not want to lose track of them. The characters and their actions and decisions matched, and they all seemed real and relatable.

Lesson
The lesson going along with this will be more complicated, so older students will understand it more. It will be about how DNA and gene splicing may work, so they can understand how the characters in this story were made. The author's use of foreshadowing with the dream in the very beginning of the book will be discussed. The author's use of allegory with the idea of having lab-born experiments basically being imprisoned their whole lives will be discussed and pointed out throughout. The author's use of similes will be pointed out throughout the book.