The following version of this book was used to create the guild: Russel, Rachel Renée. The Misadventures of Max Crumbly: Middle School Mayhem. Simon & Schuster. 2017.

Russel’s novel is split into 25 chapters and is designed in the style of a diary with numerous, detailed pictures. The narrator is a middle schooler named Max Crumbly who also owns the journal.

The novel begins with Max telling the reader that he wants to be a superhero, but struggles with bullying and middle school. While he feels he cannot change the world, he does imagine himself as a superhero from a comic book and details all the different things a superhero needs. This includes a plan, manners, and a part time job.

Max then begins to tell the story of how he stopped a gang of burglars from stealing the computers in his school computer lab. After being trapped in his locker by a boy named Doug, Max escapes. He learns there is a boiler room behind the week wall at the back of his locker which leads to the ventilation system. But when he is crawling to the computer lab to find his dad’s comic book, he sees three adult burglars; Ralph (the leader), Moose (the brute) and Tucker (the skinny guy). Unfortunately, Max slips out of the vent and falls into their pizza.

Then, Max’ best friend Erin turns off the lights so Max can escape, and the two come up with a plan to capture the burglars. They bait Moose into the kitchen with cookies. Then, Max drops gloop on him and wraps him with plastic wrap. He then sends a fake note to Tucker from Moose to lure him into another trap.

Then, they use the same cookies to bring Tucker into the gym. When he climbs a gym rope to reach the cookies, Erin turns on the fan until Tucker is so dizzy that he falls into a net. Max then attaches the net to the basketball hoop that Erin raises. Unfortunately, as they work on a plan to take down Ralph, Erin is forced off her computer by her parents and grounded.

Feeling hopeless again, Max considers leaving to tell Erin’s parents the truth as he hates that he got her in trouble. However, he finds Ralph talking to his wife in the same room as the comic book Max needs. So, Max sneaks into the room, grabs the comic book, and hides behind the desk until Ralph leave. When Max tries to escape, however, Ralph catches him at the exit. Max accidentally drops the comic book as he flees to the boy’s bathroom and escapes back into the ventilation system.

Next, Max hurries to the biology lab to set some kind of trap. Unfortunately, he breaks a pile of glass beakers and tubes which Ralph hears. Once Ralph traps Max in the room, he throws Max’ comic book out the window. Devastated, Max lights Erin’s rocket she made for class which ends up setting Ralph’s hair on fire. When he puts it out in the fish tank, he accidentally opens the enclosure for Tinkerbell, the six-foot snake. She wraps him up and shows no interest in letting go.

Max leaves through the window to retrieve the comic book, but falls down a trash chute and into a dumpster. He is thrilled when the comic book drops in after him. Just as he wonders how he can escape the brick enclosure, however, Erin arrives and says she snuck outside to save Max. When she tries to help him out, however, he accidentally pulls her into the dumpster as the police arrive. The story ends on a cliffhanger, and Max tells the reader that everyone can be a hero.