Parents' Guide to Maximum Ride 3: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

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Common Sense Media Review

By Matt Berman , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 12+

Flabby finale to senseless yet exciting series.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 12+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 12+

Based on 2 parent reviews

age 11+

Based on 34 kid reviews

Kids say this book is exciting and funny, featuring strong characters and engaging action, but it contains serious violence that may not be suitable for younger readers. Many fans love the series overall, although some have criticized this installment for lack of a cohesive plot and feeling like a filler, while others feel it's one of the best in the collection.

  • exciting action
  • strong characters
  • violence concerns
  • plot critiques
  • series fans
Summarized with AI

What's the Story?

Max and the Flock have escaped from the evil scientists. Again. After some more fighting, being captured, and escaping, they end up with Ari on their side, which causes them to split up. Max, along with Nudge and Angel, are finally led by the Voice to Germany -- but only after it leads them to England and France, for no apparent reason. But then you know how these Deep Throat types are -- they never tell you anything straight out.

So after some European site-seeing, they find the Itex master headquarters, where they are ... captured again! There the evil corporation is having some sort of pep rally/gladiator bout, in which Max is to be the feature attraction. Good thing Fang has been keeping that blog.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say ( 2 ):
Kids say ( 34 ):

To his catalog of empty thrills and nearly plotless to-ing and fro-ing, author James Patterson adds something new -- a series of pointless plot twists. The long-awaited climax turns out to be pretty much a joke and doesn't even succeed in tying up the loose ends.

The book's ending suggests the author is hoping to continue the series (at the end of the second book, he actually asked readers to vote on it). Well, for an utterly pointless series that makes no sense at all, that, at least, makes perfect sense. When you're making tons of money, why stop?

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the flabby finale. Is there anything realistic or believable about it? Why did the author have his heroes genetically enhanced when that ended up having nothing to do with saving the world?

Book Details

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