Freak the Mighty
Literary Response Assignment (50 points, Classwork)
Directions:
You are responsible for selecting (3) questions and responding to them in a “SURE” way. Use your “SURE” rubric to assist you. In addition, you must post paragraphs in response to (2) text quotes. Be certain that you refer to the text in your responses.
QUESTIONS
(10 points each)
Question 1: Trading Places
Explain why you would or would not like to change places with one of the characters in the novel. Be sure to give several reasons that relate to the novel's events for your choice.
Question 2: Friendship
How has Freak and Max's relationship changed over the course of the story? Give specific examples, including one from the beginning of the book, one from the middle, and one from the end.
Question 3: Sobriquet
A sobriquet is a nickname. What is one sobriquet used in the book and what does it represent about the character? Write a sobriquet for a pet or friend, reflecting a positive quality in that person. Please be certain to only use the first name of the person in your explanation (online safety first!).
Question 4: Max’s Self-Image
How does the location of Max's room "down under" relate to how he feels about himself? How does his perception of himself change over the course of the book? What evidence do you have of this change?
Question 5: Caring about Kevin and Max
Why do we care about what happens to Max and Kevin? How does the author make us care about them? Use specific examples from the novel.
Question 6: Knights, Quests, & Bionic Bodies
Why do you think Kevin lives in a fantasy world, role playing out the story of King Arthur, pretending to go on quests, and even telling Max he is going to get a new bionic body? What purpose does this fantasy world serve for Kevin? Use examples from the book to support your answer.
Question 7: Max’s Future
At the end of the novel, Max remains alone with a blank book and the loss of his best friend. What do you predict will happen to Max, now that “Freak the Mighty” is no longer? Give specific reasons for your ideas.
Open Forum: Post Your Own Questions (up to 5 bonus points, optional)
What questions do you have about the book? What questions would you like to ask the author? Post your own question(s) and feel free to respond to another student’s question with your own ideas! This is our chance to really attract the author as well. What questions do you have for him?
PASSAGES
(10 points each)
Directions:
What are your reactions to the passages below? Refer to phrases or words from the passage in your reflections. Use ellipses to select the most salient (important) phrases to support your ideas.
When preparing to write about a selected passage, think about…
· how the text reveals information about a character.
· how the text reminds you of a personal experience.
· how the text makes your feel.
· how the text is an example of a problem or conflict in the story.
· how the text is beautifully written and an example of the author’s style of writing.
· how the setting (place or time) of the story impacts the plots and characters.
· how the narrator may be given you clues of events that may happen later in the plot or story.
· how you can learn from how a character faces a problem or situation.
· how the text or story may inspire you to rethink an opinion or belief about something.
· how the story may be opening your eyes to something new, either a new culture, way of living, place, experience, etc.
1.
“Not that I have any ideas. My brain is vacant, okay? I’m just this critter hiding out in the basement, drooling in my comic books or whatever. All right, I never actually drool, but you get the picture.” (page 6)
2.
“I can’t believe it. By then I’m sneaking along the street to see what’s going on, and there’s this weird-looking little dude, he’s got a normal-sized head, but the rest of him is shorter than a yardstick and kind of twisted in a way that means he can’t stand up straight and makes his chest puff out, and he’s waving his crutches around and yelling up at the movers.” (pages 7-8)
3.
“He goes, ‘My mom’s name is Gwen, so sometimes I call her the Fair Guinevere or the Fair Gwen. King Arthur was the first king of England, way back when there were still dragons and monsters in the world. Arthur was this wimpy little kid, an orphan, and there was this magic sword stuck in a big stone, okay? The old king had died, and whoever could pull the sword from the stone proved he was the next king. All these big tough dudes came from all over to yank at the sword and they couldn’t budge it. One day this wimpy little kid tried it when nobody was looking and the sword slipped out like it was stuck in butter.’” (page 16)
4.
“There’s a place I go inside my head sometimes. It’s cool and dim in there and you float like a cloud—no, you are a cloud, the kind you see in the sky on a windy day, the way they keep changing shape except you can’t really see it changing? If just sort of happens, and suddenly you realize the cloud that looks like a big hand with fat fingers now looks like a catcher’s mitt, or a big soft TV set? Like that.” (page 21)
5.
“Freak is still holding tight to my shoulders and when they ask him for his name, he says, ‘We’re Freak the Mighty, that’s who we are. We’re nine feet tall, in case you haven’t noticed.’
That’s how it started, really, how we got to be Freak the Mighty, slaying dragons and fools and walking high above the world.” (page 39-40)
6.
“I’m thinking, boy, what a butthead, rolling in the dirt for this little Darth Vader so he can play pretend games in the middle of the night, but I do what he asks, I drop the hook down, and much to my surprise, it actually hooks into something and when I pull up on the kite string I can see what it is.”
(page 61)
7.
“The deal is, Freak and I get to be in the same classes. He made the Fair Gwen go in and see all these people at the school, because I wasn’t supposed to be in the smart classes, no way, and finally they all agreed it would be good for Freak, having someone to help him get around.” (page 75)
8.
“By now I’m sitting up on the bed and he’s making me put on my clothes and the weird thing is, none of this is a surprise. Somehow I always knew this would happen, that he would come for me, in the night, that I would wake up to find him there, filling the room, and that I’d feel empty.” (page 101)
9.
“’That’s for you,’ he says. ‘I want you to fill it up with our adventures.’
‘Huh?’
‘Write it down, dummy. I was going to do it, but now it looks like I’ll be busy getting used to my new bionic body. It’ll probably take me weeks just learning how to walk with long legs.’” (page 150)
10.
“So while she’s bandaging up my hand, I tell her about how Freak has been coming to the medical research lab every few months to get fitted for his new bionic body, and Dr. Spivak’s face goes soft and she nods to herself and says, ‘Well, that explains it.’” (page 156)