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Freak the Mighty
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Freak the Mighty (1993) (edit title/settings)

by Rodman Philbrick (Author) (edit contributors)

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Summary edit see section history

In the beginning of the book, Maxwell "Max" Kane is a boy with extremely low self-esteem. He lives with his grandparents Grim and Gram. Max thinks of himself as a stupid pie eating fool and is in learning disabled classes, and people are afraid of him because he looks like his father, Kenny... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

In the beginning of the book, Maxwell "Max" Kane is a boy with extremely low self-esteem. He lives with his grandparents Grim and Gram. Max thinks of himself as a stupid pie eating fool and is in learning disabled classes, and people are afraid of him because he looks like his father, Kenny 'Killer' Kane, a convicted murderer. Max sets the stage for the story by reminiscing about his time in daycare, when he was known as Kicker, the other major character, was known as Freak (aka. Kevin). Freak needs braces to walk. But Max respected him even back then for his robot death glare and thought the crutches and leg braces were cool. He also loved his obsession with robots, which later turned into knights. Many years later when Max is in middle school, the real story begins.

Max finds out that people are moving into the house next door. The new neighbors turn out to be Freak and his mother Gwen, who Freak calls "The Fair Gwen" after King Arthur's wife. The boys make friends. They go to the Fourth of July fireworks together, and puts Freak on his shoulders so he can see. The local tough guy, Tony D. "Blade", chases the two with his gang because Freak called him a cretin. With Max's size and speed and Freak's directions and master plan of running into the pond, they keep themselves safe until they are rescued by the police. After this incident, Freak starts riding on Max's shoulders. They call their combined form "Freak the Mighty". The friendship is good for them both; they stick up for each other and Kevin even teaches Max to read and learn properly. They go on adventures such as going to the hospital which Freak claims has a secret department called the "Bionics Department" which has had his brain cat scanned to be fitted into an artificial body. On one adventure they find a woman's purse in the sewer. They return it to the woman who is named Loretta Lee. She is the wife of Iggy Lee, boss of the Panheads, a motorcycle gang who "striked fear in everyone, even the cops", as Max puts it. Iggy says that the two of them once knew Max's father. They consider "having some fun" with the boys but don't because they are afraid that Max's father will get parole even though he's serving a life sentence. They also reveal that Kevin's father left once he heard his son had a birth defect.

At school, Freak nearly dies when he chokes after eating American chop suey. Max alerts the nurse. Freak is taken to the hospital. Later, Grim reveals to Max that his father has been let out on parole. Throughout the story, it has been slowly revealed that Max's father killed his mother by strangling her, and that Grim and Gram hate him and are afraid of Max ending up like him. Max is shocked and scared by the news of his father's parole. Freak returns from the hospital and the two celebrate Christmas Eve together. After Christmas Eve, Max is woken up by his father, Killer Kane, who has come to kidnap him. After Max is kidnapped by his father, the two drive to Iggy Lee's apartment in the "New Testaments" (really tenements). Killer Kane is even bigger than Max and acts in a very threatening, intimidating manner towards everyone, including his son, who he keeps tied up. Killer Kane swears on the Bible that he didn't murder Max's mother. He also reveals that he plans to head to "warmer weather" and be a con man. At night he leaves Max alone, tied up in a room in the apartment of an old lady on vacation. Loretta, shocked that Kane would do something like that to his own child, tries to help him escape. Killer Kane catches her and starts to strangle her. Max attempts to stop him and reveals that he witnessed his father kill his mother in the same fashion. Kane gives up on training Max to be his obedient assistant and tries to kill him, but Freak arrives just in time and saves Max by squirting Kane with a squirt gun he claims is filled with sulfuric acid when in fact, it is filled with soap, vinegar, and curry powder. The police are waiting outside, and Killer Kane goes back to prison, this time until he's an old man.

In the spring after the attack, Kevin celebrates his birthday and the birthday of Freak the Mighty. Soon after, Freak dies in the hospital when his heart grew too big for his body after telling Max to record all of their adventures. Max goes crazy when he hears the news and is furious at the doctors for promising Kevin a robotic body to save him. He destroys the hospital and almost gets arrested. The doctor explains that that was just a story Kevin told himself, and he always knew he was going to die young. He looked up his condition in a medical dictionary (Freak loved words and carried a dictionary around all the time). Max mourns Freak for weeks. With Loretta Lee's encouragement, Max eventually starts to heal and writes a book about the adventures of Freak the Mighty, in accordance with Freak's final wishes.

Characters/People edit see section history

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Nothing is a drag kid, think about it.”
    Loretta Lee
  • “‘Guess what I got for Christmas, Mr. Kane? Guess right, because your life depends on it.’Killer Kane doesn’t say anything, he’s just reaching out real slow because he knows that Freak can’t get away.‘This squirt gun,’ Freak says. ‘And a chemistry set. That’s what I got for Christmas.’ ... ‘Sulfuric acid,’ Freak says, raising up the gun and sighting along the barrel. ‘Good old reliable H2SO4, an oily, colorless, corrosive liquid used in dyes, paints, explosives and many chemical experiments.’Killer Kane says, ‘You’re lying, kid, you can’t fool me.’That’s when Freak squeezes the trigger and sprays him right in the eyes. ...‘It worked! He fell for it! Soap and vinegar and curry powder!’”
    Max (narrator)
  • “From Kevin's dictionary:BOOK, a four-letter word for truth serum; HIEROGLYPICS, Max’s handwriting; LIBRARY, where they keep the truth serum, and the magic carpets; LIFTOFF, what happens when you open a book; TIME MACHINE, your imagination; WRITING, talking on paper.”
  • “"Nicotine is a toxic waste of time."”
    Freak
  • “"If we were lucky, we got an apple core,"he says," or a few orange rinds." "Now Arthur," Gram says." You never got a lump of coal in your life." "You're right. We never even got a lump of coal, can you imagine? My father couldn't afford coal, so he'd write the word 'coal' on a piece of paper and put it in our stockings and we'd pretend it was a lump of coal, that's how poor we were." "The fair Gwen is laughing to herself and shaking her head. Gram says," How can you tell such lies on Christmas Eve?" "I'm telling takes, my dear, not lies. Lies are mean things, and tales are meant to entertain."”
    Gram, Grim

First Sentence edit see section history

I never had a brain until Freak came along and let me borrow his for a while, and that's the truth, the whole truth.

Table of Contents edit see section history

1. The Unvanquished Truth
2. Up from the Down Under
3. American Flyer
4. What Frightened the Fair Gwen
5. Spitting Image
6. Close Encounter of the Turd Kind
7. Walking High Above the World
8. Dinosaur Brain
9. Life is Dangerous
10. Rats or Worse
11. The Damsel of Distress
12. Killer Kane, Killer Kane, Had a Kid Who Got No Brain
13. American Chop Suey
14. Cross My Heart and Hope to Die
15. What Came Down the Chimney
16. A Chip off the Old Block
17. By All That's Holy
18. Never Trust a Cripple
19. Into the Black Down Under
20. Freak the Mighty Strikes Again
21. The Accident of Nature
22. Remembering is Just an Invention of the Mind
23. The Empty Book
24. The Return of Kicker
25. What Loretta Said

Glossary edit see section history

  • Ornithopter: A contraption that resembles a bird, you wind it up and it flies.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Rodman Philbrick (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1993
ISBN: 0-590-11022-5
Page Count: 160

Awards edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

There is some content in here that may be a little too much for young kids.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

  • Secondary Solutions: Common Core and NCTE/IRA Standards-Aligned Literature Guide for teaching Freak the Mighty

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Max The Mighty

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