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Maniac Magee Review
User Submitted Maniac Magee ReviewsAugust 19, 2008 A Classic, Worthy of Recognition 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. July 28, 2008 Maniac Magee 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. May 18, 2008 Maniacs are good friends 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. May 13, 2008 Run to this Book! 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. May 11, 2008 Maniac about Maniac Magee Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers 1991 Reading Level: 5.4 194 Pages Genre: Fiction Maniac Magee is the story of a young boy whose parents die in a tragic accident. He is left in the care of his argumentative and unpleasant aunt and uncle. He runs away and the book tells about his travels as a homeless boy in search of a home. Maniac seems to become attached to a town divided in two: the blacks and the whites. Maniac, however, is a young man before his time and cannot understand why the two sides are so opposed to each other. As he journeys back and forth across a line that all others are unwilling to cross, he realizes that they are much more alike than any of them can imagine. On both sides he finds families that take him in, and show him how compassionate people can be, regardless of their skin color. He also finds people on each side who represent the ugliness that people can often show. There are also individuals who represent all different facets of people in the world. But through it all, Maniac's adventures teach a few lessons incredibly pertinent to today's society. While the voice of the book is confusing at times, the book is exciting to read and as mentioned before, addresses several issues that are at the front of society today. As an inner city school teacher the issues are particularly real. I read this book as a student and loved it then, and now as a teacher, can even more understand how important it is for students to read this book. I would recommend it for either individual students looking for a good book to read. However, I feel this book is particularly suited for whole class readings, as I feel it lends itself to many class discussions about topics that students will find relevant and most likely have opinions to share. May 9, 2008 *Teacher Review of Maniac Magee* Title: Maniac Magee Author: Maniac Magee Publisher: Little, Brown & Co. Young Readers Publication Date: 9/1/199 Reading Level: Accelerated Reader Level: 4.9 Appropriate for children ages 9-13. Number of pages: 184 Genre: Fiction (Young Adult) Jerry Spinelli's classic book Maniac Magee is still read and enjoyed by thousands of young adults every year. A Newberry Award winner, Spinelli's story of a young orphan named Jeffrey "Maniac" Magee provides its readers with both an exciting and moving plot. Maniac becomes a legend in the town of Two Mills for numerous feats, among them running along train rails, untying an enormous knot and beating the fastest kid in town running backwards. At the same time, the book addresses the important issues of racism, segregation and ignorance. This review will provide potential readers with a brief synopsis of the plot, some negative aspects of the book and the reviewer's opinion of the book as an elementary school teacher. The plot of Maniac Magee revolves around the story's main character, Jeffrey Lionel Magee. Known simply as "Maniac," Magee appears suddenly in Two Mills, a segregated town divided racially into East and West Ends. Maniac's parents were killed in a trolley accident, and he arrives in Two Mills after running away from his aunt and uncle. Magee first meets Amanda Beale, a young black girl who loves her books so much that she carries them around in a suitcase at all times. Well-developed characters like Amanda are found throughout Spinelli's story, providing readers with a variety of personalities to interact with Maniac. The more time Maniac spends in Two Mills, the more his legend grows. He takes on John McNabb, the town bully, in a baseball game and hits home-run after home-run off of him. He races Mars Bar Thompson, the self-anointed fastest kid in Two Mills, and backpedals the last part of their race to victory. He unties Cobble's Knot, a prolific knot outside of a pizza parlor, earning himself free pizza for a year. As the story progresses, Maniac lives in a variety of locations: first with the African-American Beale family, for a time with racist and white McNabb family and even in the Two Mills Zoo in the buffalo enclosure. Throughout the story the reader is introduced to real-world issue of segregation between the town's East and West Ends. Maniac experiences the ignorance and racism that exist between the town's African-American and white communities that have simmered below the surface for years. Maniac is thrust into the middle of this issue because of his comfort with both groups of people, and the author Spinelli does an excellent job of illustrating to his young audience the danger and outright silliness of such close-minded ideas. If there is a negative aspect to Spinelli's story, it might be the book's ending. As a caution to potential readers, after following such an engaging plot the book's conclusion is a bit of a letdown. As to avoid being a spoiler, this review will not detail the ending, but will ensure potential readers that the conclusion is short and the book remains thrilling up to this point. As a fourth grade teacher, I have read this book aloud to my class and they would beg me to continue every time we had to stop. My students and I thoroughly enjoy the great characters and the thrilling adventures that Maniac has throughout the story. Not only is Maniac Magee incredibly fun to read, it also provides its readers with important real-world issues such as racism and close-mindedness. I would highly recommend this book to any student in fourth through eighth grade, but even as an adult I enjoy reading Maniac Magee every time! February 24, 2008 Finding a place in the world Maniac Magee is a young boy who lost his parents and was forced to move in with his aunt and uncle. Not liking them he one day decide to run away. Now on his own Magee was trying to find a place to stay. Later on he meets a girl who lives on the black east side and befriends her because they share the same interest in books. She later invites him home and he stays with her for a while. But since he was white, people had started to have issues with him so he decided to leave. Then after being on his own again he met a man by the name of Greyson, and he stayed with Greyson for a while at a gym in a janitor's closet. One day Greyson passed away, and not knowing where to go or whether to stay Magee left and went out for his daily run. He decided to go on the east side again and he once again ran into his old friend. They talked and he decided he was going to go back to where he used to stay. Finally Mars who was a bully towards Magee ran into him one day and made fun of him and somehow they talked for a while and began to not hate each other. He also become friends with some of the other people in town and decided that that was his place and he finally had a place where he belonged. February 8, 2008 This book is the greatest!! Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee was a white kid who had lost a lot. His parents were killed when he was three. Then he went to live with his aunt and uncle. His aunt and uncle didn't like each other and didn't share anything. They had two of everything, and they didn't talk to each other. They tried to split him right down the middle, too. He finally couldn't take it any more and he ran away. He got his nickname because he became a legend. When I said he ran away, I meant it. He ran 200 miles to Two Mills, PA. This is when the story really gets interesting. Two Mills had two parts. There was East Mill, where all of the black people lived, and West Mill, where all the white people lived. It was divided by one street right down the middle. Manic didn't know that and when he ran into town, he ran into East Mill. To him, people were just people and the color of their skin didn't matter. Most of us worry about fitting in with other people. Manic didn't worry about that. He just tried to do what he thought was right and to help other people. He had one very special talent that made all of the little kids love him and he helped them all. His talent was part of what made him a legend and he even did something that nobody else had ever been able to do and won a big prize. He couldn't even use the prize for himself, but he used it to do good anyway. The main things that Manic didn't have and wanted were a home and a family. He had a lot of different places that he stayed, but this book helped me to understand more about the difference between just a place to stay and a home. You'll see how he got what he wanted, then gave it up because he thought he was hurting the people he loved. This book has a lot of lessons. It made me see how we can be better people and why people are not all the same. And, it made me see that people aren't always what we think they are. But, even when the book is really giving us a lesson, it is funny. I think the main reason I paid attention to what the book was saying was because it put things in ways I could understand and relate to. The ending is great. It may be a kid's book, but I think everybody should read it. February 5, 2008 Excellent read I read this book in an accelerated elementary class and simply fell in love. It has wonderful, somewhat fantastical story development and an absolutely wonderful progression. The shipping service was as well superb and my childhood memory arrived with little more than a coat of shelf dust. It is a shame that a wonderful book like this was ever out of someone's hands. Books like these are what inspire us to continue dreaming and reaching for the stars. That or twisted ankles on railroad tracks. Take your pick. January 28, 2008 Maniac Magee I liked Maniac Magee because he had different families. He ran away from his aunt and uncle's house. Maniac was white and he went to live with Amanda's family. They were black. He helped people because he got black people and white people together. The book had a slow beginning, and the middle was boring. I liked the part where Amanda is yelling at Maniac. When Maniac lost his parents he met Amanda and they become friends. I think this book should be on every kid's reading list because they can learn how to get along with other people. For more Maniac Magee reviews click here.
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