Maximum Ride: The angel Experiment
"Do not put this book down. I'm dead serious- your life could depend on it. I'm risking everything by telling you- but you need to know."
(Page 1-42)
Character- Max and I are alike in some ways and different in others. We both have problems we are trying to run away from. We both have others supporting us and our lives. Her problem is that she is only fourteen, she is the oldest of a group of six kids that have wings(they were mixed with bird DNA), and are being chased by Erasers. Those kids are, Max(who is fourteen), Fang(who is fourteen, but two months younger than Max), Iggy(who is fourteen, six months younger than Max, and he is also bind, due to a failed experiment to make his eyesight even better than it was then), Nudge(who is eleven), Gazzy(who is nine and a brother to Angel. He is also known as the Gasman, for the smells he could let go of), and Angel( the smallest/youngest being only six years old). I have a problem with school and things of that sort. I don't have an entire family I have to take care of, and I sure as heck can't fly (I wish I could though. I think that would be fun and thrilling.). I also have a family that supports me. I don't have to make all of the decisions that she does and I am a very good cook. Max only has the six younger kids to lean on for support. She is not a good cook and she was created to have wings, unlike me. She and the others were created by the same man, Jeb, who was also the one that helped them escape from the lab that they called the "School". Probably because that is where all of the scientists learn new things about them and their behaviors.
(Page 43-77)
Setting-The setting affected the characters in the section that I read today because Angel has been taken from some Erasers, those are partially man and partially wolf. They were created as security gaurds and executers for the school. Jeb's seven year old son, Ari, has been turned into one of these creatures. While Max, Fang, and Nudge were flying, Max spotted a girl in need and went to help. When she did, she hit the tree guys that were going to beat up the one girl and told the one girl, Ella, to run. She hesitated for a moment and then ran. In that moment, two of the guys had gotten up and were telling her that she would regret doing that. Then, Max took off running and the lead guy pulled out a gun. He started fireing off some shots and one of them actually hit Max. She was grazzed on the top of her left sholder and her left wing. Her day was just rotten because after she was shot, she tripped on a twig, fell on her bad sholder, slid down a slopped cliff, and stopped in what she believed to be a patch of posion ivy. Had she not been in the sky or flying over that group of kids, she never would have gotten hurt to the point that she couldn't fly, she would be saving Angel faster, and Fang and Nudge would never have had to fly to the North most point of Lake Mead.
(Page 78-113
Plot-The most exciting conflict I read today was when Gazzy and Iggy went to go set a trap for the Erasers. They built a bomb (cause the nine year old and the blind guy are great bomb builders), brought a black tarp, some oil, and some nails. They put the nails an untraveled road(except by the Erasers) and put the tarp over it. They put the oil on top of the tarp and went to an old, abandoned cabin that was falling apart. They waited there for the Erasers to come looking for them. When the Erasers finally came, they were ready. The first humvee that hit the tarp, went spinning out of controll and slammed into the trees. The other two crashed into eachother, but barley missed the tarp. Then, the Erasers walked off. The next thing Gazzy and Iggy knew, the Erasers wereknocking on the door and surrounding the cabin. ""On three." Once again, the Gasman wasn't sure if he'd heard Iggy or if he was imagining it. "One." The Gasman's toes clenched inside his sneakers. "Two." When Iggy shouted, "Three!" the Gasman leaped straight into the air, unfurling his wings with a huge whoosh. With a roar of anger, one Eraser grabbed the Gasman's foot and yanked. Above him, Iggy burst through the rotting roof cabin, into the sky. The Gasman broke free of the Eraser's grip. Then he was pushing through the shattered roof, tucking his wings in tight to get throught the hole. "Move, move, move!" Iggy yelled, flapping like crazy. Within seconds, they were a hundred yards away. BOOM! Only it was more like BA-BA-BOOOOOOM! The two boys recoiled from the blast, tumbling backward in the air from the shock wave. The Gasman righted himself, eyes wide, as a fireball ten yards in diameter rose from where the cabin had been. He was speechless. After the fireball from Big Boy disintegrated, the cabin burned brightly, its odd, rotted wood consumed as instantly as kindling. Flames reached for the sky, licking at the green trees nearby, snaking along the ground as brittle brown pine needles caught fire. "Well," said Iggy after a long while, "that takes care of them." The Gasman nodded feeling sick. One dark body had flown upward in the blast, falling back to earth as a glowing coal. The other Eraser had crawled a few feet away from the cabin, a burning silhouette that had collapsed, its outlines blurred by flame."
(Page 113-142)
Theme- My favorite part of the section I read today was when Nudge and Fang were looking at someone who Nudge believed to be her mom. ""Looking for something, freaks? Guess you found it." There was no mistaking that beautiful, melodic Eraser laugh, right behind them. Nudge jackknifed to her feet. There were three of them, and they were already begining to morph. They started off, looking like male models, but then their freaky muzzles elongated, fangs erupted from their bloodred gums, ragged claws grew from their fingertips. "Ari," Fang said evenly. Nudge frowned and looked at the leader. Her eyes widened. "Ari!" she said. "You were just a little kid." He smiled, flexing his clawed hands. "And now I'm a great big grown-up Eraser," he said. He snapped his teeth together playfully, making strongclicking sounds. "And you're a little brown piglit. Yum." "What did they do to you?" Nudge askedquietly. "I'm sorry Ari." He frowned, his hairy brow lowering. "Save your pity for yourself. I'm exactly who I want to be. And I've got some news for you." He rolled up his sleeves to reveal heavily corded, muscled, hairy arms. "Your hideout in the mountians is nothing but ashes. Your pals keep having unfortunate accidents. You two are the last ones alive- and now we've got you." Nudge's brain reeled. Last two alive? The others were dead? Their house had burned down? Nudge looked over at Fang and saw his fists clench at his sides. "Pinwheel," he muttered out of the side of his mouth. Ari frowned, obviously wondering what pinwheel meant, his large, beautiful eyes narrowing. "Cholla first," Nudge muttered. She couldn't believe she was being so brave, almost like Fang. "Count of three," Fang said evenly. Which meant count of one. Ari leaned over, lightning fast, and cuffed Fang on the sholder. "Shut up!" "One," Fang said, regaining his balance, and Nudge instantly lunged forward, shoving the second Eraser in the chest as hard as she could. Taken off gaurd, he staggered backward, right into the sharp spines of a cholla cactus. Cursing, the Eraser waved his arms but landed smack on the top of its three-inch neddles, shrieking like a train wreck in the making. A lovely, musical train wreck." They started to beat fang up so Nudge grabbed a spray paint can and hit Ari right in the face with a stream of green spray paint. He screamed and fell back, scratching at his face. Nudge did the same to another Eraser before the can went empty, then threw the can that hit Ari right in the top of his head.
(Page 143-168)
Stratagy- A passage that reminded me of a song was: "It's okay Angel." This reminded me of a song from a movie I watched. Lemonade Mouth. The song is More Than a Band. This short sentence reminds me of this because Jeb is trying to tell Angel that she is safe and that everything was going to be okay. In the song, the band is singing to try to comfort the singer because her cat, the only thing left of her mom, died and they started to look at the clouds and one of them said that one cloud looked like a dad, so they started talking about their dads, and the singers dad was in jail. She hadn't written to him from embarrasment and speechlessness.
