Freak the Mighty Chapters 1-25 Review

Maxwell is the narrator of the story

Gram is Maxwell's grandmother, and Grim is his grandfather; both are on his mother's side of the family

He thinks Freak is fierce, but he thinks Freak's crutches are cool and the leg braces are even more cool

Max's grandparents refer to Max's father as Him.

He is concerned because Maxwell looks like his father and is afraid Max will inherit his father's character

Max did not have a brain until Freak moved down the street.

The down under is a little room Grim built in the basement for Max. The paneling buckles in a regular ripple effect, and the carpet smells like low tide. He has the piece to himself with no fear of Gram sticking her head in the door, asking what he is doing.

"...he's got a normal-sized head, but the rest of him is shorter than a yardstick and kind of twisted in a way that means he can't stand up and makes his chest puff out...."

It is a plastic bird, light as a feather. Freak calls the plastic bird an ornithopter.

Max says Freak talks "...like right out of a dictionary. So smart you can hardly believe it."

Max notices that Freak tries not to show he is laughing inside. Freak shakes his head and tells Max his mother's name is Gwen, so he calls her the Fair Guinevere or the Fair Gwen after Guivnevere, from the legend of King Arthur.

King Arthur is a brand of flour Gram uses.

"King Arthur was the first king of England, way back when there were still dragons and monsters in the world. Arthur was this wimpy little kid, an orphan, and there was this magic sword stuck in a big stone. The old king died, and whoever could pull the sword from the stone proved he was the next king. All these big tough dudes came from all over to yank at the sword and they couldn't budge it. One day this wimpy little kid tried it when nobody was looking and the sword slipped out like it was stuck in butter."

He believes the knights were like the first human version of robots. Hundreds of years before they ad computers they were already attempting to exceed the design limitations of the human body.

Robots are not just in the movies. Robotics, the science of designing and building functional robots, is a huge industry.

She appears to be scared of Max.

He is floating, it's cool and empty. He feels like nothing, like nobody, like nothing matters.

Max's mother and Gwen were good friends before she got married.

Gwen thinks he is crazy and scary.

Everyone in town knows his father is in prison and why he is there.

Max cries because he is happy.

Tony D. and his gang stop them and harass them. They are "saved" when the gang members run away when a police car drives nearby.

Blade is Tony D.'s nick name. He is seventeen and has been to juvenile court three or four times.

There are so many people around, all Freak can see are feet and knees. People are lifting their little kid up to see the fireworks explode, so Max sort of reaches down without thinking and picks up Freak and puts him on his shoulders.

Tony D. and his gang come after Freak and Max. Because he is up high, Freak can see who is coming after them and where they are. He directs Max, who is running with Freak on his shoulders, by kicking him on the right or left. Freak directs Max into the millpond, where they escape but get stuck in the mud.

Freak sees a police car and whistles loudly to get the officers' attention. The police use ropes to pull Max out.

He identifies Max as Kenny (Killer) Kane's boy.

He says they are "Freak the Mighty."

Gram makes a fuss over him, and when Max asks if he could have sugar for his coffee, Grim says, "Of course you can, son." Max has proved himself to be a "good guy," so Grim finally accepts him.

He thinks he did not rescue Freak; rather, Freak rescued him with his genius brain.

She wants Max to promise her he will keep away from him. Max tells her he will run.

Freak rides up high on Max's shoulders and uses his little feet to steer Max if he forgets where they are going?

Inside is a secret laboratory called The Experimental Bionics Unit. At some future time Freak will enter the lab and become the first bionically improved human.

Freak says, "Sure it will hurt. Life is dangerous."

The quest is a treasure hunt, only it's not really a hunt because Freak knows the "treasure" is in a storm drain.

The treasure is a purse belonging to Loretta Lee.

Freak tells Max he saw one of Tony D.'s punks stuff it in the sewer.

He calls them the New Testaments or just the Testaments. He has the words confused with a section of the Bible.

Poor people and drug addicts live there.

The "treasure" purse Max and Freak find in the storm drain belongs to her. She lives in the New Tenements with Iggy. She knew Killer Kane and Freak's mom, Gwen.

He likes having a really smart brain on his shoulders, helping him think.

He is the boss of the Panheads, a bad-news motorcycle gang.

He did not want to take the chance that Killer Kane would find out he was messing with his kid.

Freak said his mother won't talk about it. All she says is, "He made his decision and I made mine." "But I know he ran away because of me. Good riddance to bad rubbish."

The class makes fun of Max and Freak, chanting "Killer Kane! Killer Kane! Had a kid who got no brain!" Freak climbs onto Max's shoulders, raising his fists and punching the air calling out, "Freak the Mighty! Freak the Mighty!" Then the entire class starts chanting, "Freak the Mighty!"

Freak has been showing Max how to read a ole book, and it all makes sense.

"...reading is just a way of listening, and [he] could always listen, but writing is like talking, and that's a whole other ball game."

Max thinks Mrs. Addison is going to put him back int he learning disabled class?

Mrs. Addison promises Max he would not have to do anything he did not want to. She tells him she will make it very clear to the parole board and to his father's lawyer.

When Max comes back, something is wrong, Freak's face is all red and swollen up and he is making this huk-huk-huk noise. Freak cokes on the chop suey.

Freak said The Fair Gwen must not know of the plan because the very idea strikes fear in her heart.

Freak is growing on the inside but not on the outside.

Grim wants to get a gun to protect his family, but Gram doesn't want a gun in the house.

Grim tells Max his father is up for parole, but he has gone to court and made it so Max's father won't be allowed within a mile of the house.

On Christmas Eve they all have dinner and pretend everything is normal, no one says a word about Killer Kane.

The box is pointed at the top like a pyramid and wrapped in Sunday comics. When the paper is off there are arrows all over directing Max to a sign that says PRESS HERE AND BE AMAZED. After Max presses the spot all four sides fold down at the same time. Inside the box is a dictionary that Freak had written for Max. Max think the dictionary is the best. Everything else is extra.

His father sneaks into his room and tells Max, "I came back like I promised." Killer Kane clamps his head over Max's mouth. Max feels paralyzed and his head is empty and all there is in the world is a big hand and cool breath like the wind.

He says he never killed anybody, and that is the truth.

Max always knew his father would come for him in the night, than he would wake up to find him there, filling the room, and that would make him feel empty.

He takes Max to Iggy and Loretta's apartment in the New Testaments.

Iggy takes them down a back alley to a door that has been busted open and down a dark hallway. The apartment they go in belongs to an old woman who has gone to visit her sister for the holidays.

One thing is that he never killed anybody. The other is that he send presents and letters to Max from prison, which Max's grandparents never gave him.

"I, Kenneth David Kane, do swear by all that's Holy that I did not murder this boy's mother. And if that isn't the truth, may God strike me dead."

Killer Kane tells Max that they will get a big impressive RV and put a sign on the side: The Reverend Kenneth David Kane or another name to be on the safe side. Then Max will stand out in front of the bus in a real nice suit collecting money in a basket. Max won't ave to steal the money because folks live to give to a man of God.

He takes Max on the other side of the alley to a boarded-up building that used to be part of the Testaments until a fire burned it out. Everything is black and wet, and old pipes and wires are hanging down. Everywhere under foot is broken glass the color of smoke.

Loretta Lee comes to help Max.

Loretta tells Max that Iggy ll keep Killer Kane busy while she gets Max loose. She also tells him that the are enough cops out there to start war, and they will be safe when they get out of this godforsaken place.

Two big hands are squeezing her neck. Max sees his father come out of the darkness and it is his hands around her throat, shoving her back.

Max's hands and feet are numb and he can hardly walk, so all he can do is sort of fall on top of Killer Kane and try to shove him loose from her.

He remembers seeing his father killing his mother.

He tells Max he was only four years old and that he could possibly call that event.

After killing his mother, Killer Kane locked Max in his bedroom. Max ran to the window and broke it with his hand and started yelling for someone to come and help Mommy.

He realizes Max really does remember seeing him kill Max's mother. He thinks he has to "clean this mess up" and get rid of Max, the witness to both the murder of Max's mother and his attempted murder of Loretta.

Freak comes to the rescue.

Freak has a squirt gun he tells Killer Kane is filled with sulfuric acid. Freak sprays Killer Kane right in the eyes. While Killer Kane is screaming and scrubbing at his eyes, Max picks up Freak and goes running through the dark toward the stairs.

Everyone keeps saying that this time they've got Killer Kane where they want him, for violation of parole, violation of a restraining order, abduction of a minor, and two counts of attempted murder. This time they will lock him up for good.

The papers call Loretta the Heroic Biker Babe.

Dr. Spivak says Freak's unique status as a marvel of genetic aberration makes him an object of intense curiosity. Specialists form the world over are familiar with his case.

School is different because everyone is jealous Max and Freak got their picture in the papers. Mrs. Donelli calls them "the dynamic duo" and puts the picture form the paper on the bulletin board.

Just before the trial starts, Killer Kane pleads guilty. He makes a deal to serve out the rest of his original sentence plus ten more years.

"The man is an accident of nature," he says. "All you got from him is your looks and your size. You've got your mother's heart, and that's what counts."

Freak says, "Remembering is just an invention of the mind."

Freak's birthday is like two because not only is it Freak's birthday, Freak the Mighty is almost a year old too.

Freak has a seizure and is taken to the hospital.

Max takes the old ornithopter bird, figuring maybe Freak will get a chance to look the window and see it flittering by.

Gwen finds Max and takes him to see Freak, because Freak is insisting on seeing him.

There are so many nurses he can't hardly turn around without bumping in to one. There is all this electronic gear Gwen says is called telemetry. Max is not scared until he sees Freak and how small he looks on the bed with tubs going into his arms and up his nose.

Freak tells Max The Bionic Unit is on red alert. That tonight they will take him down there for his special operation and that the next time Max sees him he will be new and improved.

Freak gives Max a book with all the pages blank. Freak tells Max to fill it with their adventures.

When Freak starts coughing the doctor and nurses are swarming all over the room and Dr. Spivak tells Max to leave.

Max put the book in the pyramid box for safekeeping and for good luck.

Max finds out that Freak has died. He notices that some of the nurses are crying and looking at strange, and all of a sudden he goes nuts.

She told Max, "You know better than that, Maxwell. You couldn't lie to Kevin. I tried a little fib on him when he was about seven years old, because I didn't think a child could handle the whole truth, and you know what he did? looked his disease up in a medical dictionary."

Dr. Spivak tells Max that Freak's heart just got too big for his body.

Max hides in the down under, which is why he misses the funeral and the Fair Gwen's going away . Max feels like a balloon and somebody has let all the air out. He doesn't care if the air comes back because "it doesn't matter if you are going to die the end."

Grim tells Max it isn't how long you have, but what you do with the time you have. He told him he should count himself lucky because most of us go through life and never have a fiend like Kevin.

Max hated every minute, especially how people kept feeling sorry for him as if he was the one who died.

Tony D. tells Max it is a shame what happened. Max blows and tells him if he ever felt sorry for him again, he'd put him headfirst in the millpond and pound him down into the mud like a fence post.

Max sees Loretta. When she asks him what he is doing, he says, "Nothing." She gives him a long look and says, "Nothing is a drag, kid. Think about it."

Max writes Freak the Mighty.