Maniac Magee

Rating:
Summary: The Bravest Character
Review: Would you like to meet the bravest character I ever read? His name is Maniac Magee. If I were to give Maniac Magee stars, I would give five out of five stars. I liked it because it showed bravery. It showed bravery because he went to the East side. But the East side is where all black people lived. There was a boy named Mars Bar. Mars Bar had a chocolate bar and he asked Maniac if he wanted a bite. So Maniac said, "Sure." He bit on Mars Bar's own bite.

He also undoes the Cobbles Knot. the Cobbles Knot is a big knot of string. There is a boy named John McNab. John is a very good baseball pitcher. One day Maniac was running to the baseball field and grabbed a helmet and bat and ended John's strike out streak. He hit one out of the park. Then John chased him.

The next day he met a black girl named Amanda Beil. Amanda lent him a book so he can read it. After school Mars Bar saw him and ripped Amanda's favorite page. Then Maniac said, "I can fix it." So he went home with Amanda. Maniac fixed it and Amanda siad, "I can barely see the rip." So Mr. Beil went to drive him home and Manic confessed that he had no home. So Mr. Beil said, "You're staying with us." Three days later he left. He was walking and heard Berk and Piper. He saw them and said, "What are you doing?" Piper said, "Running away. We're going to Mexico." So Maniac made a deal with them. If he did something they would go back to school. Then Maniac brought them to the baseball field and saw John. John said, "What are you two doing?" Piper said "Running away." So John said, "you want to live with us?" Maniac said, "Fine." When Maniac saw the house he said, "This is not a house." When they walked in the door, the first thing they saw was the beans. Mr. McNab showed him a passage way full of prunes. Berk gave Manic beans and said, "You can make the sound of life."

A few days later it was Piper's birthday party. Piper said to Maniac that he could invite anyone he wanted. So he invited Mars Bar and his friends. Piper fell off the house and Mars Bar caught him.

So many exciting things like this happened in this book. Read to find out more!

Rating:
Summary: maniac runs again
Review: Maniac Magee By:Jerry Spinelli

This book is about a kid who doesn't really have a life. He does not have a family or friends or a home. Until he finds a town that is separated into two parts meaning black and white, he lives with a family in both parts of town and makes lots of friends and enemies. This boy is Maniac Magee!
Jeffery Magee is just a regular boy, or he was until his parents died in a trolly accident when he was three. Jeffery then moved in with his aunt and uncle. His aunt and uncle always fight so he runs away for a life on the road.
An exciting part in this book was when Jeffery(his nickname is maniac)just every thing behind and took off. Another good part was when maniac was running away from bullies but he ran on a single railroad track. Fortunately maniac got away safely.
I think boys would mainly want this book because girls don't like the sports things of the book.
I really loved this book. I would give this book 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Maniac Magee
Review: Jerry Spenneli's Maniac Magee was wonderful. It is about an 11 year old boy named Jeffory Magee who ran away from home. Jeffory's parents died when he was 3 so he lived with his aunt amd uncle. Along the way he meets Amanda Beale, the rest of the Beale family, Hands Down, Grayson, and Mars Bar. I loved Amanda's love for reading and how she always carried a suitcase full of books. I also liked when Jeffory Magee taught Grayson how to read.
Sometimes I was confused about the charactors because of their unusual names.

Rating:
Summary: Maniac Magee
Review: I am reading Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. The protagonist or main character is Maniac Magee and he lives with his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan. Maniac Magee parents died when a high-speed trolley plunged into the river.
Maniac Magee's Aunt and Uncle are different religion and they won't break up. They instead have two of everything and refuse to share. Maniac Magee has a play at school and his aunt and uncle go to watch. They are sitting two seats away from each other. Maniac Magee jumps from the top of the stage and starts screaming, "talk, talk," and he runs off the stage and runs away.
Maniac Magee's name is Jeffrey and he ran for 200 miles before stopping. He met a girl named Amanda who was black and he was white. He asked if he could borrow her smallest books so he could read it, but she said, 'NO' he couldn't. Maniac thought she was running away, too, because she had a suitcase, but it was full of her books. He begged her to let him borrow just one book and as the school bell rang, suddenly, she gave him the book and she ran into her school.
I invite and encourage you to read this book because it is an exciting book to read. So pick up a book and read Maniac Magee.

Rating:
Summary: A Rich Story of Segregation By:SAR Grade 5
Review: What is segregation? Well, Jeffery Magee is the only kid in town who doesn't know. Jeffery "Maniac" gets bullied and injuried during his search for a home.Jeffery lives in many different places during his life at Two Mills. The town zoo and a baseball clubhouse are two of the places where he lives. In Two Mills Hector Street divides Whites and Blacks. East End for Blacks and West End for Whites. Jeffery doesn't understand why they can't live together. He is the only person that has ever crossed Hector Street. Maniac breaks records and wins fights on both ends of town. But now his friend is in trouble. Will Maniac save him???
This tremendous book is full of adventures. Jerry Spinelli did an awesome job on this well-written book. I recommend this fantastic book to anyone who needs a good read.

Rating:
Summary: memorable
Review: I remember reading this book in 5th grade and I still remember parts of it today, being in 11th. It's a book I would recommend to anyone, young or old.

Rating:
Summary: Maniac Magee
Review: This book is about a boy that his parent's died,and had to go live with his uncle and aunt.Maniac,that's what his uncle and aunt aunt called him,maniac thaugh they were really weird.He thaugh that because they were married and they did not like to share thing's.Like they both had there own tv,toaster,and bed's,maniac thaugh that was pretty weird.Then maniac got board of being in the house so he took a walk in the park and he saw a girl and she was carring some book's and she droped one.Maniac ran toward the book and picked it up and returned it to the girl,that's how maniac met the girl named Amanda.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking that color barrier!
Review: The story is about young Jeffrey "Maniac" Magee who, due to a tragic event, becomes known for running. Homeless, Maniac Magee is able to transcend color lines and find his new family in the unlikeliest of places. There is a reason why this is a Newbery Medal winner and you'll know when it is read! :)

Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Maniac Magee
Review: What is segregation? Maniac Magee is not sure what it is either, but he deals with it courageously in Jerry Spinelli's story of Two Mills, PA's legend-in-the-making. The West End is where the whites live (though Maniac can't figure out why they call them white-he has at least seven different shades of color in his own skin and none of them are white). The East End is where the blacks live (though Maniac can't figure that one out either - he sees coffee, chocolate, but no licorice).

This is a story about love, too. Maniac is looking for a family to share love with (he lost his parents in the P & W trolley accident) and all he finds is trouble whether it was ticking off Big John McNabb by bunting a frogball for a four bagger or making Mars Bar Thompson mad by beating him in a race running backwards.

In his search Maniac Magee finds that the Pickwells and the Beales despite their difference in color are just as loving, just as generous, and real families that he would love to live with. He finds Grayson, a grizzled old parkhand who once struck out Willie Mays in the minors who the rest of the world shuns. Maniac teaches Grayson to read and finds temporary happiness until Grayson is pulled from him too.

Maniac finds hatred. He experiences discrimination when the front of the house is chalked up by a bigot. He experiences the hatred and and foolish ideas of George McNabb.

Maniac realizes that bigotry and hatred are learned traits, and he doesn't want to be part of that (maybe because people dislike scraggly orphans, no matter how talented and athletic they may be). Maniac even kissed a buffalo! Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Dad
Review: Children should not be reading this book. Dead parents, dysfunctional family, hating your relatives, unstable life...the list goes on.

If you are going to confront racism, for God's sake, introduce some element of heroism or something more positive than untying a complex knot. And, he doesn't even overcome. The ending is horrible.

Children are impressionable. You cannot predict which positive or negative images they will internalize. Thus, a book like this is clearly a bad influence.

I am most curious to know what the Newberry committee was thinking - or were they?