bullies, though, shows them that together they can do more together than they ever did separately. Max claims the following:

"That's how it started, really, how we got to be Freak the Mighty, slaying dragons and fools and walking high above the world" (40).

As was mentioned in the previous post, Max recalls meeting Freak in the day care as a young child. Max also remembers Freak pretending to be a robot on the playground of the day care. Years pass before Max has another opportunity to meet up with Freak. In Chapter Two, Freak and his mother move into a home on the same street as Max. In Chapter Three, Max notices that Freak is struggling to retrieve something out of the tree in his back yard and is standing on an American Flyer wagon to extend his reach. Max ends up walking over to Freak's back yard and grabs the "ornithopter" out of the tree to give to Freak. The two characters reunite, and Max shows Freak his bedroom by pulling him along in his American Flyer wagon. Shortly after they reunite, the two characters become best friends. 

In Rodman Philbrick's novel Freak the Mighty, Max is the main character. The novel is told from his point of view. The novel is about the symbiotic friendship that Max forms with Kevin, and their adventures together. 

Max and Kevin first meet at a young age (though the author doesn't give the exact age) in daycare. In chapter one, entitled "The Unvanquished Truth," Max describes their first meeting in the following quote: 

"That's when I got my first look at Freak, that year of the phony hugs. He didn't look so different back then, we were all of us pretty small, right? But he wasn't in the playroom with us everyday, just now and then he'd show up."

Max and Kevin meet again in the summer after Max's seventh-grade year. Kevin and his mother move into the other side of the duplex where Max lives with his grandparents, Gram and Grim. Max and Kevin's first conversation takes place in chapter two which is entitled "Up from the Down Under." Max decides to go outside into the backyard where he sees Kevin. He says:

"Then the strange little dude jerks himself around and he catches sight of me and he lifts a crutch and points it at up my heart and he goes, 'Identify yourself, earthling.'"

Max doesn't know how to respond to such a greeting at first. Then he recognizes Kevin as the "weird little robot kid from daycare," and thinks that Kevin must recognize him as "Kicker." Their friendship gets off to a rocky start as Kevin pulls the "trigger" on his crutch and says, "Then die, earthling, die!"

Later, in gym class, bullies roll a ball at Kevin so that he will fall, and blame Max for the deed. This further alienates the two boys. Kevin becomes Max's reading tutor, and that is when their friendship starts to blossom. They become Freak the Mighty, with Kevin as the brains and Max providing the brawn.

In Freak the Mighty, Max and Kevin go to a public middle school. The school is located in their hometown, which is a fictionalized version of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. However, the actual location of the school is inconsequential to the overall story. Few details about the school are given beyond this to describe its actual setting. As such, their school could be like any typical middle school you might imagine.

In chapter 12, the two boys enter the eighth grade together. Max and Kevin are in all the same classes this year. In fact, they are only taking accelerated classes as eighth-graders. This strikes Max as odd. He barely graduated seventh grade and has never shown much of an academic aptitude. In the past, his classes have been the ones reserved for students who need extra learning support. Kevin, on the other hand, is quite the academic achiever. Therefore, it makes sense that he is only taking accelerated classes. It turns out that Kevin's mother lobbied to have the two friends placed in the same classes. Gram and Gwen agree that it might do the boys good to be together at school since they are each other's only friends. As a result, Max is placed in the accelerated classes alongside Kevin.

The opening lines of Philbrick's Freak the Mighty inform the reader about one of the first things Kevin does for Max: he teaches him how to use his brain. 

"I never had a brain until Freak came along and let me borrow his for a while, and that's the truth, the whole truth. The unvanquished truth, is how Freak would say it, and for a long time it was him who did the talking" (1).

Kevin teaches Max to think for himself and how to find answers when he has questions. For example, Kevin shows Max how to use a dictionary to improve his vocabulary and speech. Max even receives a personal dictionary from Kevin for Christmas. It has all of the interesting words Kevin likes along with his own definitions. Once Max knows how to use a dictionary, he feels empowered to teach himself about words he doesn't understand.

Another thing Kevin teaches Max is to be brave. First, Kevin takes Max on quests just like King Arthur's noble knights did. This is Max's introduction to chivalry and doing brave things. Then, when Max is kidnapped, Kevin bravely confronts Killer Kane with a water gun that he says is filled with a deadly acid. When he sprays it into the kidnapper's eyes, the solution stings badly enough to distract Killer Kane so the boys can escape. Max learns just how clever Kevin is because he did not put deadly chemicals in the water gun--he filled it with soap, vinegar, and curry powder!

Finally, Kevin instills a sense of confidence in Max that he might not have found. He is able to do this by teaching Max about reading and writing in a way that teachers could not. For example, in chapter 13, Kevin tells Max that reading is like listening and writing is like talking. Max's response to this is as follows:

"Like Freak says, reading is just a way of listening, and I could always listen, but writing is like talking, and that's a whole other ball game" (82).

Before Kevin dies, he tells Max to write down all of their adventures. This is scary for Max because he does not believe that he can read and write well. Kevin refuses to accept Max's fear of writing and tells him that all he has to do is write down all of the memories he has about their adventures as Freak the Mighty. After Kevin dies, Max eventually gets around to writing their story and realizes that he can write. All he has to do is overcome his fear of failure and complete the task at hand. In the end, Max learns to use his brain to find ways to learn for himself; next, to be brave and confident in everything he does; and finally, to conquer his fear of reading and writing by simply tackling each task that comes his way.

The precociously well-read Kevin knows a lot of stuff about language, history, and mythology, to name but three subjects, and he proceeds to teach Max. One of the things he teaches Max is the ancient legend of King Arthur, the British king who allegedly established his kingly credentials when a mere youth by pulling the sword Excalibur out of a stone.

The legend of King Arthur has really captured Kevin's imagination, as it has captured the imaginations of many down the centuries. To a large extent, this is because he regards knights as being the first robots, another of his obsessions.

Kevin's fascination with the legend explains why he refers to his mother Gwen as "The Fair Guinevere." Max, who's blissfully ignorant of Arthurian legend, thinks that Kevin's saying "Fair Gwen of Air," which makes absolutely no sense to him at all. But Kevin dispels his ignorance, telling Max that he's referring to "Fair Guinevere" from the legend of King Arthur.

In the legend, Guinevere was Arthur's wife and queen. She was also an adulteress, who had a torrid love affair with Sir Lancelot, one of the Knights of the Round Table. This makes her comparison to Kevin's mom not entirely flattering. Thankfully, however, she doesn't seem to mind.

I have to admit, many of the adventures of Max and Kevin (who together make "Freak the Mighty") happen during the summer before their eighth grade year.  After reading half of the book, the reader finally comes to the boys' eighth grade school year. There are some significant events that happen during school as well.  

The first thing that happens (on the first day of eighth grade, no less) is that Max and Kevin proclaim their name to their classmates:  "Freak the Mighty."  Max is asked to get up in front of the class to talk about his summer.  When Max has a hard time with this and the kids tease him, Kevin stands on his desk and demands order.  Kevin then climbs on Max's back again and raises his fist in the air shouting their name: "Freak the Mighty."  All of the students join in the chant.  This validates both Kevin and Max.

Two other important events require less of an explanation, but are just as important to the story.  Max learns that his father, Kenny "Killer" Kane, is going to get out of jail on parole.  This scares Max so much that he goes into hysterics in the principal's office.  Likewise, Kevin has his own seizure when he is in the lunchroom eating "American chop suey."

In conclusion, there are plenty of events in these chapters that have nothing to do with school.  Probably the most important are Kane's release from prison and his visit to Loretta and Iggy Lee, which trigger many more unfortunate events for Max.