Book review: Maximum Ride 3.
[Disclosure: This is a MotherTalk book review; in return for posting my honest thoughts, I received a free copy of the book and will receive a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate.]
Today's review is for Maximum Ride #3: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, by James Patterson. I have not read the earlier books in the series, but the author managed to drop enough details in the voice of his uber-hip teen heroine that I wasn't too out of the loop. Within the first 50 pages, with many a reminder by the narrator (and series namesake) Max to read the other books in the series, I knew the basic plot: A group of human-bird hybrid kids are on the run from their creators, scientists who want to hasten a global catastrophe so they can "improve the planet."
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started the book. I read it in one evening, and regretted that I didn't ask Noah, age 9, to join me. I thought that a book aimed at young teens might be too much for him, which is why we haven't read the Harry Potter series yet. Parents and teachers are scrambling to find a book with a must-read feeling reminiscent of the Potter franchise, and while I can't say if the Maximum Ride series is destined to create scads of readers out of reluctant readers, it does leave one wondering what will happen next. And there clearly is a fan following: The series' website promised to write book No. 4 if it received one million hits, and it has. There is also a movie in the works, according to the site.
This book, for all that I came to care about the characters and their respective fates, is not one I can imagine the entire family reading with rapt attention. The writing style is clearly aimed at the early teen crowd, and the near-future setting and copious Internet/blogging references may date it within a few years. That does not mean it is without merit; in particular, I can see it being a launching pad for discussions about eugenics, environmentalism, and corporate/government malevolence as a result of the ideas introduced in the series.
Not being terribly familiar with sci-fi or fantasy for older kids, I was especially pleased to see a female heroine in this book. Max is strong, capable, and not too ruled by her crush on another character to kick some serious evil scientist bootie. While some of her choices and plot twists seemed too conventionally damsel-in-distress, the bird-kids' message of a family being made up of people you love, rather than people you are related to, rang true. I had a few quibbles with some the unexplained conveniences, such as how they could afford to buy food in one scene while lamenting poverty in the next, but I told myself that their methods were probably explained in an early book. And there was at least one plot twist that I didn't see coming at all.
On balance, while I couldn't recommend this book to every audience, I think that children between 10 and 13 would enjoy the series. It's a fun, not overbearing read, and feeds into the insecurity and burning for independence that kids in that age group often have. The sexual/romance content is at just the right level, without introducing the children to things they aren't ready for, although extremely conservative parents would probably find fault with some of the other themes in the story. *I* couldn't shake my lingering feeling that the author was knocking environmentalism a little bit by making the scientists' stated goal to better utilize the Earth's resources by having fewer people around.
I am glad I had the chance to read this book; we're a household of voracious readers, and I like to have a sense of what lies ahead at their age/interest level. Most of the books I've introduced to my children have been vetted by a family member/close friend or recommended by a children's librarian, but I can see that as the books the kids are interested in get lengthier and more involved, I will more often need to rely on book reviews to get a sense of what they'll be reading. I think I can safely include the Maximum Ride series on that list.
Today's review is for Maximum Ride #3: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, by James Patterson. I have not read the earlier books in the series, but the author managed to drop enough details in the voice of his uber-hip teen heroine that I wasn't too out of the loop. Within the first 50 pages, with many a reminder by the narrator (and series namesake) Max to read the other books in the series, I knew the basic plot: A group of human-bird hybrid kids are on the run from their creators, scientists who want to hasten a global catastrophe so they can "improve the planet."
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started the book. I read it in one evening, and regretted that I didn't ask Noah, age 9, to join me. I thought that a book aimed at young teens might be too much for him, which is why we haven't read the Harry Potter series yet. Parents and teachers are scrambling to find a book with a must-read feeling reminiscent of the Potter franchise, and while I can't say if the Maximum Ride series is destined to create scads of readers out of reluctant readers, it does leave one wondering what will happen next. And there clearly is a fan following: The series' website promised to write book No. 4 if it received one million hits, and it has. There is also a movie in the works, according to the site.
This book, for all that I came to care about the characters and their respective fates, is not one I can imagine the entire family reading with rapt attention. The writing style is clearly aimed at the early teen crowd, and the near-future setting and copious Internet/blogging references may date it within a few years. That does not mean it is without merit; in particular, I can see it being a launching pad for discussions about eugenics, environmentalism, and corporate/government malevolence as a result of the ideas introduced in the series.
Not being terribly familiar with sci-fi or fantasy for older kids, I was especially pleased to see a female heroine in this book. Max is strong, capable, and not too ruled by her crush on another character to kick some serious evil scientist bootie. While some of her choices and plot twists seemed too conventionally damsel-in-distress, the bird-kids' message of a family being made up of people you love, rather than people you are related to, rang true. I had a few quibbles with some the unexplained conveniences, such as how they could afford to buy food in one scene while lamenting poverty in the next, but I told myself that their methods were probably explained in an early book. And there was at least one plot twist that I didn't see coming at all.
On balance, while I couldn't recommend this book to every audience, I think that children between 10 and 13 would enjoy the series. It's a fun, not overbearing read, and feeds into the insecurity and burning for independence that kids in that age group often have. The sexual/romance content is at just the right level, without introducing the children to things they aren't ready for, although extremely conservative parents would probably find fault with some of the other themes in the story. *I* couldn't shake my lingering feeling that the author was knocking environmentalism a little bit by making the scientists' stated goal to better utilize the Earth's resources by having fewer people around.
I am glad I had the chance to read this book; we're a household of voracious readers, and I like to have a sense of what lies ahead at their age/interest level. Most of the books I've introduced to my children have been vetted by a family member/close friend or recommended by a children's librarian, but I can see that as the books the kids are interested in get lengthier and more involved, I will more often need to rely on book reviews to get a sense of what they'll be reading. I think I can safely include the Maximum Ride series on that list.