Max the Mighty

Max the Mighty is a young adult novel by Rodman Philbrick. Published in 1998, it is the sequel to Freak the Mighty.

Max Kane helps Rachel, nicknamed "Worm" because of her love of reading, run away from her overly religious and abusive stepfather. Nicknamed "The Undertaker", he drives a hearse and wears in all dark black clothing. The Undertaker accuses Max of kidnapping Worm, so Max and Worm run away with Dippy Hippie on his bus, the Prairie Schooner. Along the way, they meet two con-artists, Frank and Joanie, who read about Max and Worm and a money reward for finding them. Frank then tries to turn them in, and Max and Worm have to leave the Prairie Schooner. To take them the rest of the way they hop a train with Hobo Joe and arrive in Chivalry, Montana in a different train. They go into a mining tunnel and Max discovers that Worm's birth father had died in a mining accident. The Undertaker arrives there with the police and Max and Worm run away in the tunnels. They meet Dip, and Max's grandfather, Grim. The police catch them, and Worm runs back into the tunnel. She thinks about committing suicide to be with her father and away from her stepfather, but Max talks her out of it. The book ends with Worm and her mother living with Max and his grandparents. Max frequently mentions his old friend Kevin, also nicknamed Freak, throughout the book.