Author Rodman Philbrick’s books for young readers often touch on topics such as abusive parents, rejection by peers, and running away—issues that can stress kids to the breaking point. Philbrick’s stories suggest how children can think about dealing with difficult people in their lives. His stories’ protagonists find their way to self-acceptance, and they find adult mentors whom they can trust.

In Freak the Mighty, the award-winning prequel to Max the Mighty, Max Kane witnesses his father murder his mother, grows into a giant of a boy whom others fear and reject, and befriends a brilliant, energetic boy with a fatal childhood disease. He’s at the center of a storm of problems he didn’t cause but must deal with. His experiences in the first book help him learn to see himself not as a loser but as a person of worth. In Max the Mighty, he confronts his fears of disaster and death and, emerging from them, realizes he’s a good and heroic person.

In Philbrick’s 2010 Newbery Honor book, The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, a young boy undergoes an experience similar to Max’s. He runs away from an abusive uncle and searches for his older brother, whom the uncle sold to the military during the US Civil War.