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Maximum Ride Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
by James Patterson
Little, Brown and Company, 2007
Reviewer recommended age 12 and up.Summary
Maximum Ride is a 14-year-old bird-girl hybrid who flies with five other bird-kids in an effort to escape the scientists who created them and now are threatening to do away with half of the world's population. Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports is the third book of Patterson's trilogy wherein Max discovers the truth about her origins and must fight to lead the rest of her "flock" to ultimate safety.
Language
- Cursing includes "run like h*ll, and "bad*ss".
- Characters use lots of slang and sarcasm throughout.
- Potentially offensive words include "freaking", "lame-butt", "screw that", "sucked", "crap", "bite me", "butthole", "for God's sake", "Holy Mother", "OMG", "Oh God", "give a rat's butt", "roast in hell", "rhymes with witches".
- Two main 14-year-old characters have obvious affection, flirt a little, and share one kiss.
- One scene includes teenage boys ogling the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, another has the boys ogling bikini-clad beach goers.
- The main character refers to the boys more than once as "sexist pigs".
- The story features numerous battles between the hybrid-bird kids and robotic bad guys.
- Battles are depicted with vivid injuries, tactics, explosions and deaths.
- Painful laboratory experiments are recalled.
- Prisoners are shackled and tortured.
- A street gang joins the fight at one point with knives and a bazooka.
- Characters are beaten and bloodied but heal quickly due to altered DNA.
- Evil scientists are plotting genocide to rid the world of half its population (including anyone not deemed "useful").
Drugs/Alcohol
- Drug-induced hallucinations are part of laboratory experiments.
- A talking dog asks for "a good Chablis".
- Reference is made to crack addictions and crack houses.
- none
Religion
- The main character refers to Christmas and saying grace.
- The main character worries about karma and the "state of my soul".
- The main character prays to "my higher power".
Politics
- Global warming and corporate greed is blamed for the destruction of the planet.
- Eugenics is discussed (though not named) when the villains make their plans to decrease the population and discard the unuseful.
- Genetic manipulation and in-vitro fertilization is a prominent theme.
