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Summary: Misunderstood Kid Inspires Entire Town
Review: Jeffrey Magee is tired of watching the silent feud between his unhappy aunt and uncle who took him in as an orphaned toddler. He runs away (literally) to a town 200 miles away. Instantly he becomes a local celebrity. He runs faster, throws balls farther, and does just about anything better than anyone who challenges him. In his tireless effort to be a part of a family again, he meets several "possibilities". While seeking acceptance, Magee discovers something new to him: racial prejudice. He learns that both white and black people are ignorant about the other group, feeling threatened and uncomfortable. Jeffrey "Maniac" Magee tackles this challenge head on, convinced that "this can't be right". Before he's through, the kid known as "Maniac" inpires everyone he meets, and in the end receives his just reward. -- This is a wonderful book. Although some scenes are a bit "too fantastic", it makes great reading, with a perfect "pay off" for an ending. I read this book with my 4th grade class, and we agree that it's a winner! Highly recommended! *****
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Summary: Maniac's Time line
Review: · Magee's parents died in a train when he was 3 years old
· He was sent to live with his fighting aunt and uncle
· Magee got the name 'Maniac' because he scored 46 touchdowns with the high school football team
· He ran away
· He ended up in Two mills which is 200 miles away he ran it in only 51 days
· The town was spilt into two parts, one for the whites and one for the blacks
· Blacks lived on the east side, the whites on the west side
· First Magee lived with the Beales on the black side
· Magee got the name 'Maniac' because he scored 46 touchdowns with the high school football team
· He was forced to leave the Beales because of the pressure he brought them
· He then went to live in the zoo
· A man named Grayson found him there
· Then Grayson died leaving Magee with no home once again
· He went back to living in the zoo
· Then Magee started to run again
· He found two boys that were running away also
· They turned back and he live with the two boys for awhile
· The family that he was now living with started saying that the blacks were bad so Magee left
· Amanda Beale found Magee again and told him to go home with her
· While Magee was in Two Mills he brings the town together both blacks and whites
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Summary: Maniac Magee
Review: This is a fictional tale of Jeffrey Lionel Magee,who has a troubled beginning and is orphaned at the age of three. He later recieves the nickname of "Maniac", by his peers and his actions. His journey is one that leads him from family to family searching for a home with a numerical address. After all, doesn't everyone have an address? His journey is not only one that confronts homelessness, but prejudice and stereotypes. Enjoy this as you follow Maniac through his adventures and stories of physical and personal conquests.
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Summary: Maniac Magee
Review: Jeffrey Lionel Magee had a troubled beginning and was orphaned at the age of three. He later receives the nickname of Maniac by his peers and his actions. His journey is one that leads him from family to family searching for a home and a numerical address. After all, doesn't everyone have an address? His journey is not only one that confronts homelessness, but prejudice and stereotypes. Enjoy this as you follow Maniac through his adventures and stories of physical and personal conquest.
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Summary: he's so cool
Review: Maniac Magee is a masterful book. It writes of a boy named Jeffrey (Maniac) Lionel Magee. This book is a powerful tale of a boy displaced, who runs till he reaches a town that speaks home from every brick. knowing nothing of racism or hatred, he is confused by some of the things he finds in his new home. But his innocence and athletic prowess win him friends on both sides of the track.
Maniac Magee has a powerful message to tell to any who will listen. And children find it an adventurous if somewhat deep story.
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Summary: Modern Day American Folktale
Review: Maniac Magee ia a great modern day American Folktale. The main character, Jeffrey, exhibits traits of a folk hero. As an eight year old, he can do tasks better than most adults. He is a pure soul who encounters racism and predijuce from a variety of different groups. He also experiences life and death first hand. It is a great story that leaves you wanting more.
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Summary: A magical book.....
Review: This book is written by my favorite author - Jerry Spinelli. This book is so good that each time I read it, it gets more suspensful, fun, and there is more adventure each time. I would recommend this book to people who like suspense and action. If you like Harry Potter, you will love Maniac Magee. He's like Harry Potter, except he does it without magic.
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Summary: What a great book!
Review: In "Before the Story", an introduction to the novel, Jerry Spinelli writes, "What's true, what's myth? It's hard to know." Was Maniac Magee really a superhero in an urban legend of childhood--or was he just an extraordinary, though very human, young boy? Again, even to those who have read the story several times, it's hard to know. I doubt if Spinelli himelf knows the answer. During Part I, for example, Jeffrey/Maniac is a boy in Chapter I, a legend in Chapter II, a boy in Chapter III, a legend in Chapter IV . . . you get the idea.Even the rest of the characters have that half-unbelievable, half-real quality about them, though not as powerfully. For instance, few people have ever known an Amanda Beale who carries her entire library to school everyday; but it is easy to believe that _someone_ like Amanda does exist . . . somewhere out there. And most kids could interview all the old parkhands in their states and probably not find one who has struck out Willie Mays, or any other major league baseball player, for that matter. Yet it is still easy to believe that the novel's Grayson has a real-life counterpart. Beginning with Chapter One, when the first strange characters, Uncle Dan and Aunt Dot, are introduced, readers may suspend their disbelief and experience one of the most wonderful adventures in modern children's literature. I call it an adventure because, whether he or the readers know it or not, Jeffrey/Maniac is on a quest. He is looking for a place to call home, a place where he can be accepted and happy. Readers follow him from his first home in Bridgeport to his final home in a place-you-will-have-to-read-the-novel-to-know-about. This quest is not the only mythical element in this great novel: the hero also has several tasks to perform and dangers to brave before he achieves his dream. Along with all his "superpowers," he even has a "fatal flaw" to overcome: his naive nearsightedness when it comes to others. Some of the tasks are as simple as undoing an impossible knot. Others are as "dangerous" as trying to make peace between blacks and whites in a neighborhood. Something else mythical is Maniac's experience in the West End, which can be called a "Descent into the Underworld". Like a modern Odysseus, he makes many educational stops on the way to his own special Ithaca. (The three parts of the book mark these stops.) All of this is told in Jerry Spinelli's beautiful prose, which sometimes nearly becomes poetry. For example: "For most of November, winter toyed with Two Mills, whispered in its ear, tickled it under the chin. On Thanksgiving Thursday, winter kicked it in the stomach." At other times, the narrative seems to come straight out of a character's mind, with Spinelli taking on the voice of that character. To top it all off, "Maniac Magee" has an excellent moral. (There are many little lessons scattered throughout the plot, but I will focus on the main one.) Interestingly, the novel does not make any fixed judgements on running away. First it seems to say that running away is not the answer and that homes must be worked on, as much as found. Then it reminds us that Jeffrey/Maniac would not have found his home had he not run away to look for it in the first place. This story tugs at the heart and enriches the soul, but it also opens the mind.
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Summary: Maniac Magee
Review: I think that this is a very good book for kids at the age of 11-12. The book contains humor and good life learned lessons. I read this book during school and told my teacher I was really glad I choose this book.
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Summary: Teachers, read this book
Review: ... When I first read this book in grade school, I liked it but didn't understand the racism theme. When I re-read it in middle school, I got much more out of it.
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