Monthy Review, the last one we will write for our sophomore year in alameda high.

The school year is about to end with about 13 days left and not all of them are instruction days. That means that we have to write and finish our monthly reviews and finals very soon. The last novel that our group read is Maximum Ride by James Patterson. It is about a group of people that are 98% human and 2% bird and they are on their adventure to find out about who they are after a place called the School mutated their genes. Along the way, Max, Fang, Iggy, Angel, Gasman, and Nudge are constantly attacked by a group of part wolf part humans called Erasers. Angel is captured by the white coats in the beginning and the group's goal is to rescue her before finding out about their identity.

A character that stood out when i was reading this book is Max. Max is a girl from european decent with possibly blond hair and is very light weight because of her bird genes. Her full Maximum Ride , also the name of the book, was thought up when she was with Jeb, a parent like figure in the flock but he mysteriously disappeared two years ago. Max is the leader among the flock, and the moment when Angel is taken away, she gives the orders to fly hundreds of miles to Death Valley, where the School is , to rescue Angel. On the way flying to Death Valley, she sees that a girl is being bullied on the ground so she decides to go down and help the girl. Unfortunately good intentions arent always good, the people that was bullying the girl took a gun and shot Max's arm and wing, making her injured. When the girl and her mother, which is a vet, decides to make sure Max is recovered, Max feels a feeling of being at home and having someone care for her. This can be proved with the quote on pg 144:

Plus her mom was so awesome. She was strict about some things- dont leave your socks lying around- but so not strict about other things , like calling the cops about my bullet wound. Unlike any other parent I'd ever heard of, she didnt press for details, didnt lecture, and believed what i said. She actually accepted me. Like she accpeted Ella, for who she was.

Jeb, who was the traitor because his mysterious dissappearance from the flock was because he went back to the School to be a whitecoat, possibly can be Max's father because Jeb said," you killed your own brother!" ( pg 400) Since Ari was Jeb's son and he said Ari was Max's brother, Jeb could be Max's father.

I forgot to mention that each member of the group has their own special abilities and Max develops a voice in her head about halfway in the book. This voice guides Max through their adventure trying to find the Institute. Resulting from this voice, Max randomly gets headaches that can makes movement impossible, sometimes happening when she is flying and she falls and falls. This makes the rest of the flock worry deeply about her, making her wonder of this voice is a friend or a enemy. There is a quote from the last page of the first book that talks about the voice. annly has this quote on her last lit circle letter too.

The Voice came right back to me : That's more than three questions, Max. And sometimes whether someone is your friend or enemy is all in how you look at it. But if you must know, i consider myself your friend, a good friend who loves you very much. No one loves you more than I do, Maximum. Now listen. I ask the questions, not you. You're just here and the Voice actually chuckled, for the ride. For the incredible , indescribable Maximum Ride.

The weaknesses of this book are not much but there are a few i would like to point out. When i first read the summary about 2% bird, i thought," Isnt this a bit exaggerated?" With only 2% of their genes being nonhuman, it affects their bone structure, giving them flying abilities, super strength, and individual abilities like breathing underwater. It should probably be a much bigger ratio. Another problem that has been on my mind is when Max got a xray from Dr.Martinez and saw that she has a microchip in her forearm. It is not very clear that whether or not if only Max has it or does the whole flock have this microchip. The rest of the flock should had gotten a xray too after they rescued Angel. When Dr.Martinez told Max that is she wanted to take it out, she might risk her whole lower arm, i would had done it. It is highly likely that this microchip is a tracking device, without this chip the Erasers wouldn't have been so fast at finding the group. Mentioning that there was a microchip in Max was not very relevant because they did not mention it after that incident. Another flaw is Iggy, the only blind member of the group. The author wrote this book, saying that Iggy can fly hundreds of miles, build a bomb, and other out of the ordinary activities but he is blind. Realistically, even though his other senses are more alert because his sight is gone, flying is near impossible because you would feel very lost. Sometimes when i am bored, i close my eyes and try to walk around, even walking is hard enough for me. An awkward part of the book could be when Max's dreams and voice appeared on a subway kid's computer without touching it. I think that it would be better if when Max touched it, the images appeared, it would seem like magic.


Another book that is from the same genre as Maximum ride is other book that our group read earlier, The Hunger Games. Both books are about science fiction, one being about people with human DNA mutation, the other is about survival in an arena. The main idea in both books is to not die, one being surviving from deadly Erasers, the other is about surviving a last one standing game. In my opinion, both book are quite easy to read because they tell what the main character is thinking at the time, making the book more simpler because they are around our age. Max thinks deeply every time in a difficult situation for the sake of the whole team. Katniss tries to survive to see her family at home. In terms of which book is more science fiction, Maximum Ride wins. Clearly, this book is more sci-fi because of the superhuman strength, transforming werewolves, flying mutated people. This book is a bit less exciting than Hunger Games because sometimes you can guess what will happen. In the Hunger Games, the sudden deaths of a few important and less important characters are usually a surprise, including what Katniss did to save herself and Peeta. Although this book has no love story like the Hunger Games, it does involve strong family bonds. Even though Max and the rest of the flock is not blood related, they call themselves a big happy family. Maximum Ride is a lot less realistic than the Hunger games because of the super powers but it gives you a sense of the hidden things in this world. The School were all these horrible things were done, the actions were all done in secret and hidden in society. It makes us wonder if scientists in America do that or is there an Area 51, adding to the science fiction to it.