Module 4: Maniac Magee

Mania Magee by Jerry Spinelli

 

Summary: Jeffrey Magee's parents die in an unfortunate accident when he is only three years old.  After living with his non-functional aunt and uncle for several years, Jeffery just can't take it anymore so he decides to start running.  He ends up in a town two hundred miles away called Two Mills, that happens to be divided by a street which makes a line between the white and the black populations.  Maniac seems not to really care about skin color, and during all his running manages to start to pull the town together, where he eventually becomes known not only as Maniac Magee, but also as somewhat of a legend.


APA Reference: Spinelli, J. (1990). Maniac Magee. New York, NY: Little Brown & Company.

Impressions:
The writing style in Maniac Magee is amazing.  When Maniac goes out on Christmas morning with Grayson, an old man he is temporarily living with, the description makes you feel as if you are right there in the middle of this amazing enchanted snowy Christmas morning (p. 112-113).  The characters are depicted in such a way that it is like peeling them like an onion.  You gradually see more and more of their real characters and can't help but feel like you really know them.  One of the predominant themes of the book is that of race and racism.  The author eloquently portrays Maniac's thoughts about those who are black with his description that they are "...gingersnap and light fudge and dark fudge and acorn and butter rum and cinnamon and burnt orange. But never licorice, which, to him, was real black" (p. 51).  Maniac than described himself as,  "...at least seven shades of color right on his own skin, not one of them being what he would call white (except for his eyeballs, which weren't any whiter than the eyeballs of the kids in the East End)" (p. 58).  The somewhat mature themes in this book make it best geared to ages through middle school and up. 

 
Professional Review: An occasionally long-winded, but always affecting, parable-like story about racism and ignorance. Jeffrey Magee is twice homeless--once involuntarily, at age three, when his parents plunge with a high-speed trolley off a bridge; the second time eight years later, when he voluntarily leaves the troubled home of his aunt and uncle. Jeffrey's subsequent yearlong flight generates a host of legends:, his sudden appearances and astonishing athletic prowess earn him the name "Maniac," and his just-as-sudden disappearances ensure his fame. Innocently, he crosses between two strictly segregated parts of town, the white East End and the black West End, making friends and enemies in both camps and managing to soften the lines of segregation; later, he finds a new home in the West. If this is sometimes a bit like a chalkboard lesson, it may be because racism is still a volatile subject that is more comfortably dealt with in parable form. The metaphorical style is a brave change from the realism of Spinelli's other books, while fans of his earlier, tongue-in-cheek, streetwise tone will find it also an integral part of this story--ballast for the mythic, shifting picture of Maniac's year on the run.  

[Review of the book Maniac Magee, by J. Spinelli]. (1990, March 05). Kobak's kirkus reviews, 6, 202. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/
 

Library Uses: Pair this book with a teen program.  Have a local charity organization visit with a project for the teens to do that will benefit either homeless people in the community, or youth living in a local shelter.  Have a verbal judo instructor come to help teens learn how to react when people say things to them that they don't like, or when they are being bullied.  It was also be good to present this book at a cultural event that brings together the different cultural groups in the community.  Include a discussion of how we can be more unified as Americans.