The Misadventures of Max Crumbly

The Misadventures of Max Crumbly is the spin-off series of Dork Diaries written by Rachel Renée Russell. It is about Maxwell "Max" Crumbly's life in middle school, which he chronicles in his journal, which he calls The Misadventures of Max Crumbly. The series is also written in diary format just like Dork Diaries. The series currently has 3 books in it.

Characters

Maxwell "Max" Crumbly: The main protagonist of the series. He was first homeschooled by his grandmother until his parents agreed to send him to a public school nearby, South Ridge Middle School. Max is a kind person who is loyal to his friends but he is often a coward when it comes to Doug bullying him. His father is a comic book addict and auto repairman, and has comics worth a lot of money. His mother is a nurse and coddles her children heavily. He also has a secret crush on Erin, but in the books, he tries to deny it.

Max has an older sister named Megan, who often annoys him, a younger brother named Oliver, who has made a few minor appearances in the Dork Diaries series, and a cousin named Wilbur, whom Max often receives hand-me-down clothing from. He is the only person in the series that has asthma and requires an inhaler. Max has bladder issues and has a secret crush on Erin. Max is fully aware about Brandon Roberts having a secret crush on Nikki Maxwell. He likes to rap about his daily life when no one hears him.Like Nikki, Max is also a talented artist. Max's biggest goal in life is to become a superhero. It is revealed in the first book of The Misadventures Of Max Crumbly that his full name is Maxwell.

Oliver: Oliver Crumbly is Mrs. Wallabanger's grandson and possible crush of Brianna Maxwell. He is the same age as her and he reminds Nikki of Brandon Roberts. Oliver seems to be shy at first but he eventually opens up when he starts talking. Oliver has a puppet called Mr Buttons, made out of a sock and loose buttons, but when lost him during his and Brianna's 'play date' he was very upset about it. Although Brianna didn't like Oliver at first they are now considered friends and possible crushes. He even made her a crumpled up, yet cute valentine. In The Misadventures Of Max Crumbly, Oliver scribbled his ABC's all over Max's Air Jordan sneakers with a permanent black marker. He is also Max's brother and his sister is Megan. Oliver has bangs and light-colored hair. His hairstyle is similar to Marcus's. He has a nice smile and wears Mr. Buttons everywhere, like Brianna does with Miss Penelope. He also appeared in the Dork Diaries series.

Mrs. Wallabanger: Mrs. Wallabanger is the Maxwell family's neighbor. She is also Oliver's and Max's grandmother. She has trouble hearing and she also appeared in the Dork Diaries series. She also has a Yorkshire Terrier dog named Creampuff.

Doug Thurston aka Thug: Doug Thurston aka Thug is the main antagonist in the series. He is considered rude, crude, unpolite, and a bully by the main character, Max Crumbly, in the book series. Not much is known about Doug besides the fact that he is always mean to Max and repeatedly tries to make Max's life miserable. His character is analogous to MacKenzie Hollister's in the Dork Diaries series. He has a blatant crush on Erin Madison, the female counterpart of Brandon Roberts, in the Max Crumbly book series. Doug does everything he can to embarrass Max in front of Erin and desperately tries to woo her in order to gain her affections, but Erin does not return his feelings. Doug is depicted with straight hair, possibly black, and a unique eye shape. His eye shape has never been seen on another character, hinting that he may be Asian. Doug's specific appearance, such as eye and hair color, is not touched on by the books.

Megan: Megan Crumbly is the sister of Max and Oliver Crumbly and Oliver, and is one of the characters in The Misadventures Of Max Crumbly series.

Erin Madison: Erin Madison is the female protagonist of The Misadventures of Max Crumbly. She is mentioned in one of Nikki’s blogs. Erin Madison is one of the most popular girls at South Ridge Middle School, being that she is highly intelligent and headstrong. Despite her popularity, Erin seems to show genuine concern and is kind towards Max Crumbly. She is very well-spoken and speaks her mind no matter what others think. Max Crumbly has a crush on her but it is still unknown whether she returns those same feelings. Doug "Thug" Thurston also has a crush on her, but she is not impressed by him at all. She stared at Max when Max stared at her. She helped Max with his papers when he dropped them. She was impressed by one of his pictures and told him to paint for the school play "The ice princess".

She's the princess, and the audience. She was worried the play would be canceled which became true one day. Then Thug bumped into Max and she got mad and stood up to him until he said sorry. Thug is hinted to have feelings for Erin when he said that he likes magenta which is her favorite color. When the play was announced cancelled, she was very sad and acted rude to Max, scolding him when he asked if he could help. later, she freed Max from his locker and explained why she was so sour. Later, when Max was lost, he grabbed a phone.

The person on the other side was Erin, who accused Max of stealing cell phones and prank calling her. she said she didn't trust him and he was probably a few fries short of a Happy Meal. But, she will help him as he's her friend. She made a deal that if he hung up and won't let him help her she'll call 911. she told Max to get a trophy with a password on it. She got a new cell phone and told Max "Thanks for the password." Later, Max wondered if she could actually help him.

In Book 2, Max said he wanted Erin as a superhero sidekick.

He denied that he wasn't crushing on her even though he is. Max again wonders if Erin can help him. Later, Max thought that she was horrified and said "No! Max!" Later, Erin called Max because the phone started singing, "Girl, we have a connection! I love you more that my Lego collection!" She later confessed that she did call him and when he didn't answer, she shut the lights off. Max said she was his only friend. She said she liked him as a friend and she turned the lights off again so the burglars won't steal the computers. Then she told Max to call her on video chat. He job is to take the burglar's whereabouts and distract them to make sure Max survives. She insisted that they stay every minute on the phone. She said he can use it to call her for 40 minutes and use the last 5 minutes to call his parents.

If Max doesn't agree with her, she'll call the police and his parents now and she'll never forgive herself if anything happens to Max and she doesn't want to get expelled and ruin her chance to go to a university for helping Max break 39 school rules. Max eventually agreed to Erin. Then, she heard Max's tummy rumbling and questions what it is. Then, she said she doesn't want to know. Max told her she hasn't eaten in hours and is starving. Erin gave her locker combo and told him to go and get some cookies. Max had a flashback that on School Spirit Day, he ate green things and she told Max he was eating mold and was horrified when Max was feeling well and almost threw up on her. But luckily, he ran away before he could do so. In the kitchen, she agreed Max can use the mold, food poisoning, vomit and diarrhea to the burglars and should call it Operation Fuzzy Burger.

She told Max they could also get the slimy chicken soup and Erin told him to cook fast and his battery to down to 39 minutes.

She then told Max the burglars took candles and was going to rob the computers when she turned on the sprinklers. She said the cookies were so good, she can eat an entire box. Then, she went away for a minute to go to the bathroom. When she came back, Max had defeated one robber (Moose) and she was shocked the plan actually worked. Later, she suggested Max to send Tucker an invitation to the gym. Max did and she turned the fan switch and made him hang high in the air.

She suggested to defeat Ralph, they should use her 8th grade honors biology classroom and she said she has an A+ on her biofuel rocket she built. Then her parents came in and said they told Erin that she can't use any technology after 9 PM and her punishment is that she's grounded for a week and they're taking away her laptop.

She lied that she was working on a big school project. Then her dad hung up on Max. Max said that if Erin hadn't been grounded, Max could've defeated Ralph easily. Later, had to hack her dad's work computer to see what's happening at school. Then, she got dressed, disconnected the burglar alarm and rode to school with her bike. She then stood over the brick wall of the school. She told Max that he wouldn't die. She said she called the cops and they had to leave before they came because she's afraid her parents would ground her until her 21st birthday. She then asked why Max was wearing her Ice Princess costume and Max attempted to use a Jedi Mind Trick on her.

Erin pretended to fall for it and laughed. She said Max would make a great Elsa. Then she told Max to grab her backpack and they'll escape. Unfortunately, her backpack can't hold Max's weight, leaving a screaming Erin to fall into the dumpster. She started complaining about the terrible smell. She started panicking and wondering how'd they get out of the school and they'd both get kicked out. Then Erin started annoying him and said it's his fault. Max retorts it's mostly Erin's.

Then Max wonders if they'll escape and continue their secret life fighting crime or get arrested by the authorities and get expelled from the school for breaking 73 school rules.

In blog posts, Erin was mentioned when Thug read Max's journal and threatened to give it to Erin. On St. Patrick's Day, she told Max he was eating mold and got scared when Max started feeling unwell. That concept was used in the 2nd book as well. Later, in another journal, Max said that she was going to know him better and found out he smelled like lavender tide, almost as good as a new computer.

Mr. Crumbly and Mrs. Crumbly: Max's parents.

Mr. Madison: Erin's dad.

Mrs. Madison: Erin's mom.

Principal Smith: The principal of South Ridge Middle School.

Books in the series

Locker Hero
Middle School Mayhem
Masters of Mischief