Max the Mighty

Chapters 1-6

Reading Check

1. A gang-banger (Chapter 2)

2. A miner’s helmet (Chapter 2)

3. Worm (Chapter 3)

4. She reads. (Chapter 3)

5. The Wind in the Willows (Chapter 6)

6. Her stepfather, the Undertaker (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. He lives in the basement of his grandparents’ house. (Chapter 3)

2. She loves to read and does so instead of socializing. Kids call her Bookworm, or Worm for short. (Chapter 3)

3. Max overhears the Undertaker knock out Rachel’s mom and finds him trying to get into Rachel’s room to strike her too. (Chapter 6)

Chapters 7-15

Reading Check

1. The Prairie Schooner (Chapter 9)

2. The Dippy Hippie (Chapter 9)

3. Fire ants (Chapter 10)

4. Frank and Joanie, two con artists (Chapter 11)

5. $10,000 (Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. The Undertaker claims that Max hit Rachel’s mother and kidnapped Rachel, so Max is in trouble. (Chapter 7)

2. The bus station is guarded by police, who are searching for Max and Rachel. (Chapter 8)

3. Dip is a retired schoolteacher who wanted to tour the US with his wife, but she died, so he travels by himself. (Chapter 9)

4. Frank pretends to slip and fall at the grocery store, which elicits the grocer’s sympathy. (Chapter 13)

5. They tell the police they know where Max and Rachel are. They do it for the reward money. (Chapter 15)

Chapters 16-20

Reading Check

1. A train (Chapter 16)

2. Hobo Joe (Chapter 17)

3. Chivalry, Montana (Chapter 20)

4. Rusty tin (Chapter 20)

Short Answer

1. Joe says his home is wherever he sleeps. He likes the freedom and is happy to wander the country on trains. (Chapter 18)

2. They agree that the passing scenery is spectacular, and that it’s much better than watching TV. (Chapter 18)

3. The town of Chivalry is completely abandoned. The buildings are empty and broken down. It’s a ghost town. (Chapter 20)

Chapters 21-30

Reading Check

1. An owl (Chapter 21)

2. Books (Chapter 22)

3. Her father (Chapter 23)

4. Dip and Grim (Chapter 27)

5. Her miner’s helmet (Chapter 28)

6. Max (Chapter 29)

Short Answer

1. As a small child, she lived in Chivalry with her parents. Her father was a miner there, and she remembers his miner’s helmet, and how he gave her a helmet of her own to wear. He died in the mine disaster. (Chapter 23)

2. They detect a light breeze, which proves there’s another entrance to the mine where the breeze comes in. They follow the breeze to the way out. (Chapter 26)

3. The Undertaker arrives at the mine and insists on taking Rachel away. She refuses to go back to a life filled with his terrible cruelty; she’d rather be dead. (Chapter 28)

4. A degraded tunnel brace falls on him, trapping him; Max and the others save him. He admits that he hit Rachel’s mom, and in court he’s convicted and sentenced to a long prison term. (Chapters 28-30)

5. They move in with Max and his grandparents. Gram gets an extended family, and Rachel informally becomes Max’s sister. (Chapter 30)