or Jennifer Rudolph Walsh; Hadley, Griffin, and Wyatt Zangwill

Gabrielle Charbonnet; Monina and Piera Varela

Suzie and Jack

MaryEllen and Andrew

Carole, Brigid, and Meredith

Fly, babies, fly!

To the reader:

The idea for Maximum Ride comes from earlier books of mine called When the Wind Blows and The Lake House, which also feature a character named Max who escapes from a quite despicable School. Most of the similarities end there. Max and the other kids in Maximum Ride are not the same Max and kids featured in those two books. Nor do Frannie and Kit play any part in Maximum Ride. I hope you enjoy the ride anyway.

Warning:

If you dare to read his story, you become part of the Experiment.

I know that sounds a little mysterious-but it’s all I can say right now.

Max

ongratulations. The fact that you’re reading this means you’ve taken one giant step closer to surviving till your next birthday. Yes, you, standing there leafing through these pages. Do not put this book down. I’m dead serious-your life could depend on it.

This is my story, the story of my family, but it could just as easily be your story too. We’re all in this together; trust me on that.

I’ve never done anything like this, so I’m just going to jump in, and you try to keep up.

Okay. I’m Max. I’m fourteen. I live with my family, who are five kids not related to me by blood, but still totally my family.

We’re-well, we’re kind of amazing. Not to sound too full of myself, but we’re like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Basically, we’re pretty cool, nice, smart-but not “average” in any way. The six of us-me, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel-were made on purpose, by the sickest, most horrible “scientists” you could possibly imagine. They created us as an experiment. An experiment where we ended up only 98 percent human. That other 2 percent has had a big impact, let me tell you.

We grew up in a science lab /prison called the School, in cages, like lab rats. It’s pretty amazing we can think or speak at all. But we can-and so much more.

There was one other School experiment that made it past infancy. Part human, part wolf-all predator: They’re called Erasers. They’re tough, smart, and hard to control. They look human, but when they want to, they are capable of morphing into wolf men, complete with fur, fangs, and claws. The School uses them as guards, police-and executioners.

To them, we’re six moving targets-prey smart enough to be a fun challenge. Basically, they want to rip our throats out. And make sure the world never finds out about us.

But I’m not lying down just yet. I’m telling you, right?

This story could be about you-or your children. If not today, then soon. So please, please take this seriously. I’m risking everything that matters by telling you-but you need to know.

Keep reading-don’t let anyone stop you.

-Max. And my family: Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel.

Welcome to our nightmare.