Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrook

From Goodreads:

"Two boys – a slow learner stuck in the body of a teenage giant and a tiny Einstein in leg braces – forge a unique friendship when they pair up to create one formidable human force. A wonderful story of triumph over imperfection, shame, and loss."

Goodreads - Freak the Mighty

Awards:

• Grand Canyon Reader Award for Grand Canyon Reader Award for Teen Book - 1996
• Charlotte Award - 1998
• The Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature Honor - 1994

I was in junior high or high school when I first read this book.  I remembered bits and pieces of the book, but knew that I would enjoy reading it again if I had the chance.  I ended up ordering it from Scholastic so that I could get my read on over the summer... and I did just that!

This book is about a boy who is kind of a slow learner and his friend who is small and sick.  The boys befriend each other and go on great adventures together.  The entire book is from the perspective of Maxwell the giant, and we eventually find out why the book is from Maxwell's point of view.  We learn more about both of the characters and we discover how they came to be the way they are.  The book has two unexpected twists that involve both Maxwell and Kevin.  Together these two unexpected friends become Freak the Mighty.

This book was absolutely wonderful.  The dynamics of the characters are so complex, but so simple too.  The way that the two boys become friends isn't very interesting, but what keeps them together is intriguing enough to keep you reading.  Kevin is a brainiac who uses his wits to make up for his small size.  Maxwell is often judged because of his father's actions, he is stared at because of his large size, and made fun of because of his learning disability.  This is a wonderful story of how friendships can develop.  Kevin and Maxwell didn't become friends because they had something in common,  but because they complimented each other in a tremendous way.  Maxwell was large and slow, but Kevin was tiny and smart.  Together they became an unstoppable force that was witty and able to conquer anything.

There is also a movie that is based upon this book.  The movie is called The Mighty and it is really good.  It follows pretty closely to the book, but has some minor changes.  It still does the book justice and captures all of the feelings that are in the book and puts them into a visual.




After reading this book and watching the movie it really reminded me of the movie The Cure.  The movie The Cure is about a boy who befriends another boy and they go on adventures only to find out that one of the boys has AIDS, which ends up killing him.  The Mighty and The Cure had a some similarities which makes me wonder if the two movies were released at the same time in a competition of companies.  This book also made me think of the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  In the book Wonder the main character Auggie has quite a few physical ailments that cause him to be different from others.  He befriends a few students and struggles to maintain friends until they go on a camping trip and he is protected and defended by kids from his school.  These two books really have the same theme of friendship and that is one of the best things to read about.

Overall, this book is wonderful.  It has some up and down moments, but it is still an excellent book.  This book really shows that befriending someone who you least expect to be friends with will often turn into an amazing friendship.  I give this book 5 out of 5 stars and advise everyone to look for someone who needs a friend, and be a friend to them.