Maniac Magee [Paperback]

Jerry Spinelli (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Listening Library (Audio) (2005)
• ASIN: B000OSII4S
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (732 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Growing up, Jerry Spinelli was really serious about baseball. He played for the Green Sox Little League team in his hometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and dreamed of one day playing for the major leagues, preferably as shortstop for the New York Yankees.

One night during high school, Spinelli watched the football team win an exciting game against one of the best teams in the country. While everyone else rode about town tooting horns in celebration, Spinelli went home and wrote "Goal to Go," a poem about the game's defining moment, a goal-line stand. His father submitted the poem to the Norristown Times-Herald and it was featured in the middle of the sports page a few days later. He then traded in his baseball bat for a pencil, because he knew that he wanted to become a writer.

After graduating from Gettysburg College with an English degree, Spinelli worked full time as a magazine editor. Every day on his lunch hour, he would close his office door and craft novels on yellow magazine copy paper. He wrote four adult novels in 12 years of lunchtime writing, but none of these were accepted for publication. When he submitted a fifth novel about a 13-year-old boy, adult publishers once again rejected his work, but children's publishers embraced it. Spinelli feels that he accidentally became an author of children's books.

Spinelli's hilarious books entertain both children and young adults. Readers see his life in his autobiography Knots in My Yo-Yo String, as well as in his fiction. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved Penn Relays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book, while Maniac Magee is set in a fictional town based on his own hometown.

When asked if he does research for his writing, Spinelli says: "The answer is yes and no. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. Yes, in the sense that the first 15 years of my life turned out to be one big research project. I thought I was simply growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania; looking back now I can see that I was also gathering material that would one day find its way into my books."

On inspiration, the author says: "Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. And from imagination. And from feelings. And from memories. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey."

Spinelli lives with his wife and fellow writer, Eileen, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While they write in separate rooms of the house, the couple edits and celebrates one another's work. Their six children have given Jerry Spinelli a plethora of clever material for his writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not everything is perfect, May 19, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Maniac Magee (Paperback)

I picked Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli for my school book report because the cover looked interesting. It showed a picture of feet running. Inside the book jacket was a poem that read:
"Ma-niac, Ma-niac
He's so cool
Ma-niac, Ma-niac
Don't go to school
Runs all night
Runs all right
Ma-niac, Ma-niac
Kissed a bull."

It looked very interesting and funny. I really liked the book because the main character, Maniac Magee, was funny and smart and cared about and helped people. You really want him to be happy.

Maniac Magee (whose really name was Jeffrey) became a homeless kid who lost his parents in a trolley accident. He wants a real home with a family and that is what he looks for in the story. He's really unusual. He is famous for running everywhere. He's so fast no one can beat him. He's really good at sports. He even hit a "frog" ball and turned it into an inside the park homerun. He can untie very complicated knots. Little kids bring him all their troubles and he helps solve them. He wins a lifetime supply of pizza but he's allergic to pizza! Everyone loves him--well, almost everyone. That's what bothers him and keeps him running all night.
Maniac doesn't see any bad in people. He keeps thinking they're nice. But some are so mean that he finally figures out they don't like him. He blames himself. Maniac meets a girl, Amanda. She has lots of books and he really wants one. She lets him have one to read. When he returns it she invites him to live with her family in the East End. Only black people live there. Maniac doesn't see any difference between the black and white people. When he sees there are some who don't understand each other he tries to get them to like each other. But this doesn't happen very easily.

After Maniac runs away from Amanda's house, he lives with the buffalos at the park zoo. One day he meets Grayson who used to be a Minor league pitcher. Grayson and Maniac become really close like grandson and grandfather. They do everything together. You'll have to read what happens next. It's very emotional.
Maniac spends time with the McNabb family in the West End. This is where the white people live. When he's there he tries to bring the East End and West End kids together. One time it doesn't work. Another time it does work.
Maniac runs away from all of his temporary homes because he wants things to be perfect. He learns that not everything can be perfect. Does he find what he wants in the end? You'll have to read the book to find out.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kid takes over city!, June 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Maniac Magee (Paperback)

If you liked Wringer or Space Station Seventh Grade, you'll like to read Maniac Magee. The story about a boy named Jeffery Lionel Magee [later called Maniac] whose parents died when a trolley fell off its track and plunged into the Schulkill River. Everyone on board drowned. Then Jeffery was sent to his aunt and uncle's house. He ran away because his aunt and uncle bickered a lot and he got sick of it. Then he travels 200 miles to Two Mills, Pennsylvania. He moves in with the Beales. A black family willing to take care of Jeffery. After running so fast, hitting the world's first "frogball", scoring 49 touchdowns when playing football with some high schoolers, Jeffery Magee's name was changed to Maniac Magee. Then Maniac moved around from house to house because he and Amanda Beale got into a fight. Then Maniac moves around from house to house in the East End to West End [in this book, blacks and whites are isolated. Blacks in the East End. Whites in the West End] My favorite part was when Russell and Piper tried to run away from home to Mexico, and Maniac tells them to stay home an extra week every week. This is a really good book. It is so good that there should be a movie retelling the story. Like The Indian in the Cupboard. I hope you will like it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maniac Magee Review, February 6, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Maniac Magee (Paperback)

Maniac Magee was an outstanding book. It was one of the best books i have ever read. Maniac Magee's real name is Jeffery Lionel Magee. He is an 11 year old whose parents died on a trestle. So he had to go live with his aunt and uncle. He ran away from his aunt and uncles house because they were not getting along.
On his journey running he ran to a place called The Two Mills and he met a couple of kids. The first kid was Amanda. Maniac told Amanda about his parents and Amanda Beale invited Maniac to live with them. Maniac was so happy that he had an address now. You are probably wondering where he was sleeping before the Beale's let him live with them. Well i am not going to tell you, you are going to have to see for yourself.
The author that wrote this book is trying to teach us a lesson, to be friends with everyone no matter what color you are.
This author is an amazing writer, in his books there is a lot of humor, and at the same time there is a lot of sadness.
I would recommend this book to 10 year olds to 13 year olds because i am 11 and it really kept my attention.
My opinion of this book is that it was a marvelous book. One of my favorite parts was when he tired to get that enormous knot out of the rope.