Freak the Mighty is a nice and easy read in terms of both its structure and plot, though some of Freak's vocab and syntax might trip kids up on occasion. Philbrick does a good job, however, of getting some hoity-toity language into the minds of readers of all levels, and it's a good challenge for students to figure out what Freak is saying for themselves by using context clues. Of course you can also prod them along with well-placed questions and activities.

The Not So Easy Parts

Then there are the not so easy parts, challenging things like jail, murder, losing a parent, being labeled, bullying, learning disabilities, and death. Laying it all out like that makes it look like a book fraught with landmines, yet there's nothing gory or overly violent, the bullying is minor, the learning difficulties dealt with nonchalantly, and the bad guy gets it in the end.

Maybe the hardest part is the death of Freak (did you cry?), yet a difficulty like this can bring about the best discussions and responses from students. It also makes it easy to transition to real-life situations that kids deal with, like losing someone special, broken or non-nuclear families, dealing with learning difficulties, and low self-esteem. Once these situations come up, encourage students to use their real-life connections in their writing and responses to help them understand the characters better, or in extreme cases, to lead them to talk to someone outside of the classroom about what's going on in their personal lives.