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Was born on March 22,
1947.
He has written 65
novels in his career.
He has been criticized a
lot since he has become
a writer for no apparent
reason.
19 of his novels have
been #1 bestsellers.
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Maximum Ride
Fang
Iggy
Nudge
Gazzy
Angel
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Jeb Batchelder
Ari
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Fang is my favorite
character because he is a
strong silent figure. He
helps to keep the flock
together by whatever it
takes, even if it means
getting beat to a pulp or
even dying if necessary.
Fang is the second oldest
and it shows as he protects
the little ones like Nudge
and Gazzy.
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Reilly is my least favorite character because of they way
he treated Angel. Angel is just a 6 year old girl who has
been experimented on since she was born. She has the
ability to read minds and the only thing Reilly has ever
thought about is dissecting her brain. He is a person who
is so ugly on the inside you could only expect to find a
black hole.
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A girl is having a dream she is being chased by
wolfmen and that she jumps off a cliff and
unfurls her enormous human sized wings. Her
dream is actually just a past event in her life.
She really does have wings and her name is
Maximum Ride. Max and her flock ( Fang,
Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel) live in a
home in the mountains and they are hiding
from the School, an institute that made them
the way they are, and the creatures that the
School has created.
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The Flock are eventually found in the sanctuary
that was given to them by one of the scientists
named Jeb. They are found by creatures called
Erasers. The Erasers are a more advanced form of
werewolves that can transform at will and are so
good looking and have such angelic voices that
they can warp the minds of regular humans to do
what they need and to get information out of them.
They come to the Flock’s home and knock most of
them out, taking the Angel. The rest of the flock
wakes up to see this happening and devise a plan
for Max, Fang, and Nudge to go on a rescue
mission to save Angel from the school and their
horrible experiments.
The Flock makes a plan to get Angel which all blows up when the
Erasers raid their home while three of them are gone on their
merry way to get Angel. The other two who were at home escape
and make it to the others. Once all five are back together they
make it on their way to the school. They don’t want to fly up to
the school because that would be too obvious, so they steal a van.
They get chased by Erasers and everyone but Iggy and Gasman
are captured. While inside of the school they found out that their
savior, Jeb who they thought was dead, was actually alive and
helping the other scientists. Jeb takes Maximum into another room
where he tells her that she is going to save the world and she is
awestruck and put back in her cage. After that they are sent out
into a field for the Erasers to play hunt down the flock and kill em,
but they get interrupted by Iggy and Gasman who bring along a
flock of hawks that they met on the way to the School. The hawks
are huge help to distract the Erasers and scientists enough for
everyone to escape. While they are escaping Jeb tells Maximum to
stay and everything was just a test, but she doesn’t and leaves.
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The flock finds their way to an institute that is just like the
school, but is in New York. They go their in hopes to find
out things about their parents and other information like
that. They find the information on a computer that Nudge
hacked. What is weird is that they also found more mutants,
one of which is a bird girl like them. They are found by Ari,
who tries to chase them down but all the younger flock
escapes along with the mutant children that were there. Max
has a big fight with Ari, throwing kicks and punches and
knocks him on his back. While Max has Ari pinned she
smashes his head on the ground but his head went off of the
platform they were on and broke his neck. Max is shocked
but runs away when she hears Jeb scream “You killed your
brother!!!”. She is shocked to hear this but runs anyway.
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After the flock escapes the Institute, Max is
haunted by the last words she heard from Jeb.
How could she of killed her own brother when she
and Ari were so different? She stops thinking
about that and they fly to central park and hide in
a tree. They then figured out that Angel had stolen
one of the animals that was being tested on, named
Total. They hid under an abandoned band shell
and talked about Total and what to do with him.
They keep him and Angel is, of course, happy
about that. The papers that Nudge had printed off
were very helpful and helped them find out that
most of their parents were around DC, so that’s
where they decide to go.
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This book starts out at an undetermined year in an
abandoned home in California, that used to belong
to Jeb. They had lived in that house for 4 years.
Two years with Jeb and two years without. It
moves across the U.S., starting off by going to the
School in Arizona. The flock goes to the School
trying to save Angel from the whitecoats. After the
adventure there they fly to lake mead to meet up
with the first group that left. They end up going to
the school and getting caught. Then they fly to
N.Y. and that’s where it ends. During the entire
book there isn’t time for rest, and everywhere they
go is hostile.
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The three main themes in this book are Society, Deceit,
and Leadership. Society in this book is huge. It shows
how troubled our world is in so many ways. It depicts
how different people may act in different situations.
Deceit in this book is huge. Every corner you turn there
is a new secret uncovered and a new problem is made
for the flock, especially when Jeb appears at the school.
Leadership is a strong point in this story because Max
is only 14 but has to make sure her flock is safe and
sound and never has a break from it. She is in trouble
all of the time because of the decisions that she makes.
Most of her decisions help them to escape horrible
situations and stay together as a family.
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I would rate this book as a 9 out of 10. I took
away a point because as much action and
adventure there is in this book, it’s a little
predictable. I could see my self reading this
again just to go through the emotions and
feelings of disbelief.
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My social issue is going to be about how child
abuse effects our modern society. It is a huge
problem and it can cause death. There are three
main types of abuse. They are physical, mental,
and sexual. This is huge because it messes up
potential people that might make huge ideas to
help develop better ways for our society to
move forward. Instead, they are so destroyed
on the inside that they have no idea what to do
and we need to change this.
YouTube and song that relates to
my social issue
("Child Abuse")
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Physical Abuse is one way children are abused. It is when
someone exerts aggressive behavior on your body, normally
resulting in physical injury to your skin, bones, or internal organs.
It doesn’t always occur from hitting. Some other forms of physical
abuse are excessive exercise, or malnutrition.
Mental Abuse is another type of abuse. This behavior normally
happens by forcing someone in to a psychologically hurtful
situation. It can also happen from calling your them names or
ignoring them. Sometimes it is caused by one person threatening
himself, the person being mentally abused, or loved ones. This
type of abuse can be highly detrimental and cause the necessity of
years of psychological therapy.
Sexual abuse is the last type of abuse. This type of abuse is caused
by an offender looking for sexual stimulation. It can cause
physical and mental abuse all at once and is seriously messed up.
Evil has no easy explanation.
Everyone is evil and is good.
Sometimes we watch ourselves do something evil
Frozen in a scream that's never heard.
We cannot stop ourselves, so we go on,
Knowing somewhere else the horror plays
And plays and plays until we are forgiven,
Healed by someone's gift of unearned love.
When someone has been tortured as a child,
Evil, like a mad dog, crouches near.
One buries it deep in a vaulted, lead-lined chamber,
But zombie-like it stalks the world within.
It's strange that darkened children need forgiveness
For evil that they suffer, innocent.
But guilt's the trademark of humiliation,
Burned into the flesh of memory.
Love washes over evil like an ocean,
Sweeping over seething, fisted anger,
Drowning it in cold, unquiet depths,
Leaving you weak and weeping on the strand.
You wouldn't be yourself without the pain
That twists inside like penitential dancers,
Making you the stage of some strange beauty,
Like no one else, the host of our redemption
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Patterson, James. Maximum Ride. Grand Central Publishing, 2006. Print.
Shostakovich, Dimitri. "Evil has no easy explanation."Poems for Free. Nicholas Gordon, Web. 21 Feb 2010.
<http://www.poemsforfree.com/evil.html>.
"Child Abuse." youtube.com. Web. 21 Feb 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9njhcQUlXc>.
Child abuse: breaking the cycle." youtube.com. Web. 21 Feb 2010.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzGfcqjBRgA&feature=related>.
Ford, Richard. "Children rescued as abuse ring smashed." times 19/06/2007, Print.
Finkelhor, David, Heather Turner, Richard Ormrod, and Sherry L. Hamby. "Violence, Abuse, and Crime
Exposure in a National Sample of Children and Youth.." Pediatrics Nov. 2009: 1411-1423. Print.
Park, Loretta. "Death at the hands of adults: Report gives a glimpse into number of fatalities caused by child
abuse." Standard-Examiner 25 Oct. 2009, Print.
Rodriguez, Christina M. "Personal Contextual Characteristics and Cognitions: Predicting Child Abuse
Potential and Disciplinary Style.." Journal of Interpersonal Violence Feb, 2010: 315-335. Print.
"We can prevent Child Abuse." Prevent child abuse America. 2006. Prevent child abuse America, Web. 21 Feb
2010. <http://member.preventchildabuse.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=3941.0>.