Jump On Board This 'maximum Ride' (usatoday.com)

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By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY Thu May 19, 6:21 AM ET The young-adult book market is a tough nut to crack. figured out what kids like, and so have authors like Judy Blume and R.L. Stine. But the mega-success stories are few and far between.

That brings us to James Patterson, an author of adult fiction who has been so successful that the Harvard Business School used him as a case study. And now, Patterson's first young-adult novel, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, has made it onto best-seller lists.

The key to Ride's success may be that it incorporates concepts familiar to young people. It's about Max Ride and five other children ages 6 to 14 who are 98% human and 2% bird, the result of lab experiments in which human DNA is mixed with that of other species.

What makes these characters so appealing is that they have wings and can fly. Preposterous? Not really. Remember that flies around on a broomstick and Luke Skywalker moves objects with his mental powers.

Another plus: The book has the feel of a video game. Max and her friends escaped from the lab and are living on their own. What kid hasn't fantasized about that?

Patterson also has tapped into teens' fascination with the Internet through www.maximumride.com, which offers a character-based blog and a message board where readers can interact with the book's characters.

In the novel, Max and the others are pursued by mutant creatures called Erasers who want to take them back to the lab for more experiments. There are plenty of fight scenes - another riff off of video games - and, of course, these kids have enormous physical strength. What kid hasn't fantasized about having the muscle to fend off the schoolyard bully? But these kids don't go to school - another fantasy for most children.

The story also deals with emotional questions. The human/bird kids know nothing about their parents and wonder what it would be like to live in a normal family - another subject that kids from today's dysfunctional families may identify with.

Fights and flights are non-stop in Maximum Ride. The short chapters appeal to the limited attention span of many of today's teens. The writing is visual and cinematic - things that kids expect from their video games, TV cartoon shows and action movies. And the ending leaves plenty of wiggle room for a sequel.

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