From Philbrick's Freak the Mighty, who does the narrator live with? Explain how they feel about him.

The narrator for Philbrick's Freak the Mighty is Maxwell Kane. He makes up the Mighty part of "Freak the Mighty" and his friend Kevin, who is a brain, makes up the Freak part. Max lives with his mother's parents because his father is in jail and his mother died when he was about four years-old. Instead of calling his grandparents "grandpa and grandma," Max calls them Grim and Gram. As he's recently started going through puberty, he's grown exponentially, and he's starting to look like his father. Max overhears his grandparents talking about it as follows:

"Grim out in the kitchen one night, after supper whispering to Gram had she noticed how much Maxwell was getting to look like Him? . . . Grim never says my father's name, just Him, like his name is too scary to say. . . It's more than just the way Maxwell resembles him, Grim says that night in the kitchen, the boy is like him, we'd better watch out, you never know what he might do while we're sleeping" (3-4).

The above passage shows that his grandparents are worried about Max growing up to be a criminal like his father; but they love him, too. For example, after Max and Freak run into the pond for safety from some bullies, Grim and Gram are worried about him and show him a lot of love. They even give him ice-cream and coffee to show how much they care. Grim even believes that Max could have taken the boys because he's so big, but he supports Max by saying that he didn't run away, "He's taking evasive action. Avoiding a confrontation. That's a very different thing, right, Max?" (43).

Grim and Gram never give up on finding Max when his father kidnaps him and they give him space to grieve when Kevin dies. Even though they are worried about him, they still show him loyalty and love.