The Angel Experiment: Maximum Ride Book 1 by James Patterson

Readers Annotation:
Maximum ride is a mutant, 98% human and 2% bird. When Angel, the youngest in her flock is kidnapped by Erasers and taken back to the school to be experimented on, she will stop at nothing to get her back. == Plot Summary:==

The story starts off with a ragtag group of orphaned mutants. All of the kids are 98% human and 2% bird, they all have wings with an impressive wing span and can fly. With the help of Jeb, one of the scientists that created them, they had all escaped from the “school” a lab where they were kept in dog crates and experimented on. Maximum has acted as a mother figure to all of them after the disappearance of Jeb two years earlier. When Erasers attack their flock and kidnap Angel, the youngest member of their group they will stop at nothing to get her back. They break Angel out of the school and fly to New York city looking for clues to their past. Each one of them seems to develop new powers during their quest. Maximum hears a voice in her head telling her where she must go. Angel can hear people’s thoughts and “persuade” them to do things with her mind. The whole time Eraser’s always seem to be able to find them and Maximum is pretty sure it is because she has a tracking device implanted in her arm. The clues that they discover leads them to the Institute in Washington. The flock break into the Institute and discover files with information about their mother’s and father’s whereabouts.

Evaluation:
The characters in this book were a lot of fun. They kind of had a comic book feel, reminding me of the mutants in X-men. The story had a lot of feeling with its depiction of Max as the mother to all of the misfit mutants. It was a good start to the series ending with a cliff hanger that leaves you eager for the second book in the series. Although the main character is a girl, the whole story is action, suspense and fighting which would greatly appeal to a reluctant male teen reader. == Reason Selected:==

MAXIMUM RIDE, Patterson's first ever Young Adult novel, spent 12 straight weeks at #1 on the New York Times Chapter Book bestsellers list and, as a series, has now spent more than 60 weeks on New York Times bestseller lists. MAXIMUM RIDE was an American Library Association 2005 "Teens Top Ten" pick and was a London Times "Book of the Week" selection and a Book Sense 2007 Children's Pick. Challenges: None Ages: 13+/Interests: Science Fiction, Mutants, Comics Authors Website: []