Maniac Magee

Maniac Magee

by Jerry Spinelli

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company 1990 184 pages

Genre: Family Life, and Social Issues

Reading Level: Ages 9-12

Summary:Maniac Magee is a roaming orphan who longs for acceptance and an address to call his own. His parents died when he was very young, and was sent to live with Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan. He runs away from them at the age of 8 years old. He runs until he reaches the town of Two Mills where most of the story takes place. The town of Two Mills is separated by Hector st and by whites on the west side and blacks on the East side. It is there that he meets the Beales and eventually moves in with them. He unties Cobbler’s knot in a effort to make tensions about him living in a black neighborhood, but he realizes that this can never be and so he leaves the Beales, and he eventually moves in with Grayson in the Band Shell equipment room and has some very happy memories there, but it all ends when Grayson dies. After Grayson’s funeral, he is forced to run again and he goes to Valley Forge. He decides that he wants to die and there he finds Piper and Russell McNab who are running away to Mexico. He bribes them into going home and then moves in with them. He lives with them until Maniac protests enough about the Pillbox that they are building in the living room to guard against black invasion, and they force him to leave. Mars Bars later saves Russ McNab from the trolley bridge and Maniac becomes a permanent residence with the Beales.

Response: This book really makes you think about lots of serious facts of life, like the prejudice and racism that we exercise in our everyday lives.

Cautionary notes: Racism, prejudice, and dysfunctional homes