Max Tilt: Fire the Depths audiobook

I love intelligent, fast-paced adventure stories for any age, but particularly middle grade fiction, and this is right up there with the best. A mystery with clues to solve from Jules Verne himself; a terrific pair of questers--Max who is "on the spectrum" and loathe to step out of routine, and his older cousin Amy who is, well, an adorable and indomitable flake; a wild-ride of adventure including a submarine city, an ice-cave in Greenland, a giant squid attack, and a desert island; and a villain who is at times funny, brave, and yet ultimately brutal. A great start to what promises to be a marvelous series.

Da Vinci Code or National Treasure for middle grade readers. I dig it!

We love powerful women like AlexAlex>>>> everyone elseI loved the character development that Max had

This book is absolutely amazing!!!

Reviewed by James, age 9, 3/23/19Note: James would have eagerly allotted five stars. But since we're posting these on Mom's account, I vetoed him. I have my standards. :) Note from James: Mom's standards are outrageous. This book is about Max and Alex. Max is a descendant of Jules Verne. His last name is Tilt, but Verne is his ancestor. His mom has a medical condition that doctors don't know how to cure, and his family is deep in debt. His mom has to go to the hospital for a couple of weeks, and so they leave him with his cousin Alex. Max and Alex find out that Max's family is deep in debt, and the electric company threatens to cut off power and they've only got a couple of weeks left to live in their house. So they search the attic for things to sell. They find lots of paintings and stuff, and they discover a secret room in the attic with a chest. Inside of the chest is a skeleton, which is really creepy. They eventually find that in the bottom of the chest there is a secret compartment with a note that gives directions to two different hiding places in the attic. The first is the chest, the second is the painting of Jules Verne. It tells them that if they follow the directions and decode them, that they will find unimaginable wealth as well as go on the adventure of their lives.They pay their electricity bill, but they put the chest up on eBay and some guys come and want to buy it. They ask if there was anything in the secret compartment when Max says something about it, and Alex quickly put her hand over Max's mouth and says "No, there was nothing in it." The men say "I would give you double if there was anything in it." Alex gets nervous, and the man says "Do I detect nervousness? I am detecting nervousness" and he lunges at her because he knows she's hiding something. But he does not know that Max tied their shoelaces together. Max and Alex search for the treasure with the bad guys in hot pursuit. I loved this book and am already almost done with the second. I would recommend it to ages 8 and up who love sci fi and adventure.

When thirteen year old Max (great great great grandson of Jules Verne) and his cousin, Alex, stumble upon one of Jules unfinished works while cleaning the attic looking for things to sell, Max's family needed help to save their house and fast. Well Max and Alex decide to follow the clues in the book, but they need money and help, is this guy Spencer Niemand the one to help them or the one to hurt them the most, and who is he?I have read all kinds of books where authors take the reader on trips back in time, historical fiction. Or they write a book in a way to teach the reader one thing or another, but I believe this is the first book I have read that had been written, at least for middle graders, to teach them about a classic book, and it was a really fun awesome book. (Hint: Libraries if you don't have it now stock up on a few 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, you are going to need them.) Peter Lerangis does not disappoint with this awesome race against time, nature, and humans, the action is non stop and the suspense is thick, but you will always find yourself rooting for the underdogs on this the ultimate race.

Fire the Depths is a masterfully written adventure, sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Full of danger, excitement, craftiness in decoding confusing clues, 13-year-old Max who has a form of synesthesia (where one sense like smell substitutes for another) and Alex, his 18-year-old cousin go to extremes to uncover a treasure in order to save the house from foreclosure, and more importantly his mother, who needs experimental treatments to save her life. The first book of Lerangis's new series, it keeps readers intent on reading the next title in the series. Awesome first book!Click here to place a hold on this book in the library ctalog.

Of all the books that I’ve read my junior high students over the past few years that have been a starter book of a series (9), this is the second time that nearly every student in the class has been engaged listening to AND want to listen to Book 2 next instead of something new.I quite enjoyed how well Max is portrayed as a main character on the spectrum. It gave me an opportunity to have conversations with my students about why he reacted in some ways to different situations or didn’t understand sarcasm/took things very literally. This book successfully mixed a story from an actual author, Jules Verne, and his books into the modern day adventure narrative as his ancestors go on an adventure to find The Lost Treasure. Overall really good middle grade read.

Fantastic middle school books. 13 year old Max accidentally finds out he is related to Jules Vern. He an his cousin Alex set off to find the hidden treasure. They find clues and are following Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Of course, they are not the only ones. “Stinky”, related to Nemo is also on the search.Max needs the money to save his house and his mother who is critically ill. Lots of adventure!!

Good, fun action story with an interesting premise and a main character with autism. Quite well done. You don’t need to know Jules Verne’s work to understand or follow the story. Would probably book talk well with 5-6th graders.

Super Fun!! A really fun spin on the National Treasure type plot!

Have to read in order. Captivating storyline, couldn't put it down.

Refreshing lead character and a fun adventure.

4 starsgood talking points about autism spectrumgood messagesclean