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Customer Rating:
Summary: Maniac Magee
Comment: Jeffery Magee is a twelve-year-old kid who's parents died in the famous P&W trolley crash. His aunt
and Uncle can't agree on anything, not even Jeffery. When they come to the school choir concert they
sit on opposite sides of the bleachers, at the end of the song Jeffery is screaming for them to
talk. Then he starts running, away from school, away from his aunt and uncle, away from
Holidaysburg. Into Two Mills.
Upon arriving in Two Mills Jeffery gets himself into the
furious fight between blacks and whites. When he starts living with a family of blacks, the Beales,
he finds himself in for alot of trouble, especially from Mars Bars Thompson. Eventually Jeffery, now
Maniac Magee, ralizes the trouble he has caused and runs to East end, the white side of town. There
he starts living with the Mcnabs, but soon sees that he's only causing trouble there too. In the end
Maniac is living in a buffalo pen at the zoo when Amanda Beale and Mars Bars Thompson convince
Maniac to live with them in West end, because they don't care if he's white, he is their friend. /> Pg 182:
"Let's go."
"Where?"
"Home."

"Who's?"
"Mine. Yours. Ours. Come on, I'm sleepy"...
He knew that finally,
truly, at long last, someone was calling him home.
I think this best examplifies the
authors purpose in writing this book by saying that if you keep trying and don't give up you will be
acceptted no matter what. Also that no matter how the world looks there is always someone who cares
about you.
I think that this book is a great contribution to society. It teaches us that
growing up can be hard, but there is always something good waiting for you on the other side. Also,
it helps us understand that if we preservere we will always make it.
We will make it
through life, good or bad, depending on our choices and I think that this book is a great example of
that. overall this is a book that anyone who has questions about growing up should read.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Classic, Worthy of Recognition
Comment: I picked up this book back in 3rd grade, and it was the first book that got me in trouble for
reading in class. I couldn't put it down. I must have read it once every six months back in
elementary school. The story is great, the characters lovable...but the main draw is the ease to
identify with the protagonist.

Every kid wants to be, or has felt like, Maniac Magee. I
especially recommend this to kids with divorced or deceased parents. When I was little, this book
inspired me, and I just know it will inspire generations to come.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Maniac Magee
Comment: As with any book, there are people that LOVE this book and people who hate this book. Teachers are
often critized for assigning books because they are on "some list" instead of assigning books
students will actually read. I am a teacher. Let me assure you, that at least in my case, I did not
choose to assign this book becuase it was on a list or it won an award. In fact I read this book
after a student suggested I read it [I have a section where students can recommend books to other].
After reading the book, noticing it's content and genre I started asking around. I found that many
5th and 6th graders liked this book. This is what started our teachers to consider this book as
assigned reading - not because it ended up on a list.

Critiques made by others: />
1. Confusion

Some students have difficulty undertanding parts of the book. The
book is very detailed which has different effects on different students. Some get confused and bored
because of the details while others like the details because it helps them understand where Maniac
is coming from. I start this book off talking about Tall tales and exaggeration. Then we read the
intro which reads like a Tall-tale : "Some say...". This clear some of the confusion.
/>2. Language

I am VERY cautious of language. I get very frustrated when authors (be it
books or screen plays) add in language. I think it takes more craft to allude to language without
actually using it. I have read many reviews concerned with the language. I do not feel that this is
a concern in this book. The book does mention trash-talking. And although there are some examples
(very mild by any standard), the majority was alluded to ("they cursed" or "trash-talking" instead
of using the actual words].

3. Racism

I noticed that a few people
critized the author for making very racist statements when he described the different colors of
black and white people. I think that these people read too much into this. I have friends of many
different colors, countries, and cultures. We have had MANY discussions talking about our true
colors. We laughed at the terms black and white, because they truly do not describe us.
/>Also, I know there is concern that the town is racist. Unfortunately, there are still places like
this in the U.S. I have found that this has started some really good discussions in the classroom.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Maniacs are good friends
Comment: After reading Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, I have learned a lot about what it takes to be a good
friend. I thought I had good friends before I read it. Friends are supposed to be people you can
laugh with, remember forever, and trust enough to ask for a payday loan without any threat of
interest. Spinelli produced in Jeffrey Magee a completely different kind of friend.
Maniac,
as he came to be known by other characters in the book was homeless, needy, untrusting of most
others, independent, and reclusive. He preferred running through town and sleeping with animals at
the zoo to staying with his stiff, staunch, and insensitive foster parents. When he does run away,
he finds himself in the same town his parents died. He discovers there the racial hate,
socio-economic oppression, and disbelief in people he thought he had run away from. But he also
discovered that the people there revered him as a legend.
Spinelli wastes no time
complicating Magee's life. Soon after he runs away, Maniac is sought after by a neighborhood bully,
ousted by racist adults, hunted by arrogant unsupervised white kids, and indebted to the first kind
person he meets. Spinelli creates a lovelable boy, with many of the same characteristics as Tom
Sawyer, and a lot of the same plights many of his readers recognize from experience. Only one thing
makes Magee stand out from all the rest.
Magee is blessed with a shroud of heroism. In his
own meandering and misanthropic way, Maniac saves a retired minor league pitcher from his lonliness,
restores the legend of a fallen big brother, returns courage to a fearful bully and reaffirms a
girls faith in humanity. He also teaches a town to accept differences on both sides of the
track...in spite of color differences.
The novel is colored with humor, charm and
sincerity. Spinelli seems to be unfolding real events on a neon canvas. So bright and amusing they
can't possibly be real, these moments resonate with whispers of reality. Parts of Spinelli's
childhood seep from the pages, touching the lives of all readers and embracing the childhood some
have yet to leave behind.
Readability is enhanced by short fast paced chapters, a subtle
thread of suspense and a genuine curiosity about what Maniac Magee will do next. No matter who
reads this book, Magee is sure to run them down leaving their minds stamped with Jerry Spinelli's
gifted writing.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Run to this Book!
Comment: Run to this Book!

The Best of Juvenile Fiction

The story of Maniac Magee
is a folk tale for today's kids. Jeffrey
Lionel Magee--known as Maniac Magee--runs away from
home. His parents
died while he was only a baby and he had been living with his aunt and />uncle. One day when he couldn't deal with his caretakers any more, he
ran away from home and
just kept running. That is where the legend of
Maniac Magee begins.

Maniac is a
true folk hero, right up there with John Henry, Davy
Crocket, and Johnny Appleseed. Jerry
Spinelli writes at the beginning
of the book, "The history of a kid is one part fact, two
parts legend,
and three parts snowball." All through the book, the reader has to
figure
out which parts of Maniac's story are fact and which parts are
legend.

The first
day Maniac arrives in town, he runs into Amanda on the
street. Amanda pulls a book from the
suitcase full of books that she
carries with her at all times and gives it to Maniac. This is
the
beginning of Maniac's friendship with Amanda. On that first day in
town, Maniac also
beats the high school football team in football and
saves a boy from a group of bullies.
Already, Maniac has made quite a
reputation for himself.

Throughout this exciting
book, Maniac has to deal with issues that
affect real kids today. The town where Maniac stays
is segregated.
Most of the white families live on one side of the train tracks and
most
of the black families live on the other side. Maniac makes many
people unhappy when he makes
friends that are both black and white.

Also in the story, one of the characters in the
story never learned
how to read. As readers, we learn a lot about education and illiteracy />in the United States. There are many connections young readers can
make to their own lives
at school.

While the beginning of the book might seem a little confusing, stick />with it! This book really becomes excellent after the first couple
chapters. It takes that
long for the reader to get used to Jerry
Spinelli's style of writing. Spinelli writes clearly
and mixes in
beautiful and poetic sentences to keep the writing interesting: "The
old
man gave himself up willingly to his exhaustion and drifted off
like a lazy, sky-high fly
ball."

Once you read this book, you will definitely want to read other books
by
Jerry Spinelly.