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.

My 4/5grade class has been reading this book - they have struggled with some of the vocabulary and "jargon", but the message has definitely come through! I can't remember the last time I cried while reading a book, but the chapter after "Grayson" had me grabbing for tissues....As a teacher, I can't recommend it enough - especially when trying to teach students about figurative language and author techniques, of which Spinelli is a genuis!

In suffering through another reading of the abysmal "Maniac Magee" given to my child by his school, I was motivated to warn other parents. The constant repetition in a children's book of words like "turds," "fart" and "pisshole" is not only tedious, it is far from educational. These are but three drops in the effluence of vulgarities that is the book that many children are required to read.

Some schools were won over after the publisher pushed for the book to win an ALA prize. Many school districts order books because they are staffed by indifferent people who are momentarily roused from a habitual lethargy by the spark of novelty, or worse, by the inducement of publisher-paid junkets. The self-styled "educational" publishing houses are run not by scholars but by those with a sharp mercantile sense who know that crass is catchy: it stops the purchasing manager's eye as he runs down a list of offerings. Some misguided people at the ALA awarded a prize imagining this book to be what it is not; they are the same sort who think themselves original and eloquent in describing each of hundreds of books like this as "fresh" and "relevant" and "written in a new voice."

The book is none of those things. It is obvious and contrived. The author's effort to express a mood, to communicate a certain tone and carry his narrative--that "new voice"--is inconsistent throughout the book, breaking down even within the space of a single paragraph or sentence. His attempts to mimic dialect are so inaccurate as to betray complete ignorance of the people he wants to show us he knows how to describe. You can see him huffing and puffing and failing. Often aware he is seen floundering, he tries to hide behind a screen of bombastically atrocious metaphors or gross imagery. "I really meant to look awkward and unpolished," you can hear him say, "Really I did." Artifices such as the disjointed vignettes of the initial chapters have all been seen before and he dabbles at them maladroitly. Even his pandering to what he imagines to be children's cruder reflexes is sophomorically executed. Children are better than his own faculties allow him to imagine.

The worst offense the book commits is to be the opposite of what the prize-givers thought they were celebrating. A central focus is the racial tension in Magee's town. I was offended by the crude caricatures of poor people on both sides of the divide. Too often they are held up for mockery with a scarcely disguised, smug sniggering at the less fortunate. A serious topic is trivialized as it is distastefully exploited as a commercial gimmick.

With books like this informing young minds, it is no wonder the world sees Americans as increasingly uncultivated boors. Maniac McGee should be cast in the rubbish with Scholastic Publishing's Captain Underpants and Professor Poopypants, other "prize winning" tripe foisted on hapless students.

As a kid, this book drew me in quickly. It is fast paced and fun, and "Maniac" lives the life every little boy wishes he could. But to read the whole novel is not to want to stay young... Jeffrey learns about responsibility, and maturity, and how to love the unloveable. The book teaches us that home is a place of love and healing and growth, not a place where people look similar. I fell in love with this book in third grade, but it might be a bit more suitable for the 5th-7th grade level, or a fairly advanced reader of a younger age.

During my years as an elementary and high school librarian, I read all of the Newbery Award winners from 1922 on. Jerry Spinelli's "Maniac," the 1991 winner, is one of my favorites both for its humor and its very effective message about learning and living tolerance for those who are different from us. Vona Van Cleef, bookwoman