Maniac Magee

Maniac Magee is a wonderful book for any child to read. I read this bbok for me Children's Literature class and I could barely put it down. I found the development of the characters to be wonderful. Without a doubt I loved Amanda Beale, she was my favorite character and was definitely a spitfire. I would recommend that this book be used in intermediate grades. It is age appropriate for fifth grade and up.

I am very happy with the condition of the book I have ordered through Amazon. Maniac Magee was one of the better books I have read to my family in a while, I look forward to ordering more through Amazon.

Brenda Olson

Good selection for 10-14 year olds. Provokes discussions on orphans- prejudism-segregation and homelessness. Keeps the adolescent reader interested.

I've been passionately in love with this book since the 4th grade. I think it is one of the best children's books ever written, in the many themes it explores.

Heck, you have to give the author credit for writing such an ordinary story in a style usually reserved for legends. For that's what this becomes, an urban legend, a tall tale, of a boy who is simply an ordinary boy. It's real and touching even as it goes over the line to the roll-your-eyes fantastic.

Even as Maniac Magee impresses the locals with his small-time wonders, he is a very real boy with very real emotions. No character in this book is made flat, and everyone is shown in multiple lights.

And yet it still manages to have simple, poignant riding that is easily understood, even if the themes are a little more complex.

One of the greatest books Spinelli has written or will ever write.

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.