Freak the Mighty Rejacket

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Praise for Freak the Mighty:

"A small classic, funny-sad, page-turning and memorable... Suspenseful, touching and swiftly persuasive about its most unusual central characters, this remarkable book takes you through dark territory, but is written with humour and simplicity. It celebrates language, loyalty and imagination, and leaves you smiling."

The Sunday Times

"As funny as it is touching and convincing." The Guardian

"Moving and inspirational."

Funday Times

"Uplifting."

The Bookseller

"A heart-breaking tale. Freak the Mighty offers everything you could possibly wish for in a novel... Get reading now and prepare to sob your heart out."

Red House

"This is an exciting and emotional read. Highly recommended."

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"An incredibly moving, often witty story... a wonderful book."

ottakers.co.uk

"A captivating, memorable story." Glasgow Sunday Herald

"I'm not a reader easily brought to tears, but this one made me cry."

Books For Keeps

"This book was excellent... Read this book!" Teen Titles Book Review Magazine

"An uplifting and utterly compelling tale." Junior Education

"This is a gripping, heart-warming story, full of tenderness and laughs cleverly mixed with some scary and tragic moments. You may want to keep a hankie handy!"

Primary Times

An American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults

A Judy Lopez Memorial Award Honour Book

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This edition first published in the UK in 2004 by Usborne Publishing Ltd., Usborne House, 83-85 Saffron Hill, London EC1N 8RT, England.

? Copyright 1993 by Rodman Philbrick.

All rights reserved. Published by arrangement with Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, USA

The right of Rodman Philbrick to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

The name Usborne and the devices

are Trade Marks of

Usborne Publishing Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance

to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

JFMAMJJASON /06

ISBN 9780746087251

Printed in Great Britain.

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To the real Kevin, and the real Gwen, with love.

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The Unvanquished Truth 1

I never had a brain until Freak came along and let me borrow his for a while, and that's the truth, the whole truth. The unvanquished truth, is how Freak would say it, and for a long time it was him who did the talking. Except I had a way of saying things with my fists and my feet even before we became Freak the Mighty, slaying dragons and fools and walking high above the world.

Called me Kicker for a time ? this was day care, the year Gram and Grim took me over ? and I had a thing about booting anyone who dared to touch me. Because they were always trying to throw a hug on me, like it was a medicine I needed.

Gram and Grim, bless their pointed little heads, they're my mother's people, her parents, and they figured whoa! better put this little critter with other

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FREAK THE MIGHTY

little critters his own age, maybe it will improve his temper.

Yeah, right! Instead, what happened, I invented games like kick-boxing and kick-knees and kickfaces and kick-teachers, and kick-the-other-littleday-care-critters, because I knew what a rotten lie that hug stuff was. Oh, I knew.

That's when I got my first look at Freak, that year of the phoney hugs. He didn't look so different back then, we were all of us pretty small, right? But he wasn't in the playroom with us every day, just now and then he'd show up. Looking sort of fierce is how I remember him. Except later it was Freak himself who taught me that remembering is a great invention of the mind, and if you try hard enough you can remember anything, whether it really happened or not.

So maybe he wasn't really all that fierce in day care, except I'm pretty sure he did hit a kid with his crutch once, whacked the little brat pretty good. And for some reason little Kicker never got around to kicking little Freak.

Maybe it was those crutches kept me from lashing out at him, man those crutches were cool. I wanted a pair for myself. And when little Freak showed up one day with these shiny braces strapped

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