The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1)

Product Description In James Patterson's blockbuster series, fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride, better known as Max, knows what it's like to soar above the world. She and all the members of the "flock"--Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel--are just like ordinary kids--only they have wings and can fly. It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time...like when Angel, the youngest member of the flock, is kidnapped and taken back to the "School" where she and the others were experimented on by a crew of wack jobs. Her friends brave a journey to blazing hot Death Valley, CA, to save Angel, but soon enough, they find themselves in yet another nightmare--this one involving fighting off the half-human, half-wolf "Erasers" in New York City. Whether in the treetops of Central Park or in the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family take the ride of their lives. Along the way Max discovers from her old friend and father-figure Jeb--now her betrayed and greatest enemy--that her purpose is save the world--but can she? From Publishers Weekly Themes from Patterson's popular adult titles When the Wind Blows and The Lake House waft through this YA thriller, the author's first in the genre. Wood stars as Maximum Ride, 14-year-old leader of a band of kids who have escaped the lab where they were bred as 98% human and 2% bird (wings being a key component) and developed a variety of other-worldly talents. In Patterson's unusual universe, Max and her young cohorts are soon forced to rescue one of their own—a girl named Angel—from a pack of mutant wolf-humans called Erasers. Wood nails Patterson's often adult-beyond-their-years dialogue with a jaded tone. But the result of this pairing makes Max sound more off-putting than cool or intriguing. The listening experience is stalled in the starting gate, keeping the action-adventure earthbound rather than high-flying. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Gr. 7---9. Patterson, best known for his dark, gritty thrillers featuring psychologist Alex Cross, first dipped his toes in the waters of children's literature with SantaKid (2004). Aiming at an older youth readership this time and reworking ideas and characters that appeared first in his adult novels When the Wind Blows (1998) and The Lake House (2003), he delivers an action-packed cross between Gertrude Chandler Warner's Boxcar Children and Marvel Comics' X-Men. Fourteen-year-old Max (short for Maximum Ride) leads an usual group of children, escapees from an institution that designed them by "grafting avian DNA onto human genes." Yup, these kids have wings. When Angel, the smallest of the group, is kidnapped by mutants and taken back to the "school," Max and her family determine to get her back--no matter what. Patterson occasionally forgets his audience here, as evidenced by his sardonic tone and such glib adult asides as "they found their prey: moi," but he's picked a comfortable formula (orphans protecting one another and making a home together), which he's cushioned with an abundance of slavering beasts, childhood heartaches, and unresolved issues--all in preparation for the sequel in 2006, in which Max will, presumably, assume the role she's been assigned here: savior of the world. Expect the Patterson name to attract a crossover audience of both adults and youth. Stephanie Zvirin Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review Raves for the MAXIMUM RIDE series: #1 New York Times Bestseller Publishers Weekly Bestseller An ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults An ALA/ VOYA "Teens' Top Ten" Pick A VOYA Review Editor's Choice A New York Public Library "Books for the Teen Age" Selection A Book Sense Summer 2007 Children's Pick A KLIATT Editors' Choice A Children's Choice Book Awards Author of the Year for MAX Praise for The

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