Maniac Magee is a folk story about a boy, a very excitable boy. One that can outrun dogs, hit a home run off the best pitcher in the neighborhood, ...
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Dec 16, 2009
David
rated it: 
He wasn't born with the name Maniac Magee. He came into this world named Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died and his life changed, so did his name. Maniac Magee took to the streets.
And Maniac Magee became a legend.
Even today kids talk about how fast he could run; about how he hit an inside-the-park "frog" homer; how no knot, no matter how snarled, would stay that way once he began to untie it. Little girls jumping rope chant:
"Ma-niac, Ma- More...
And Maniac Magee became a legend.
Even today kids talk about how fast he could run; about how he hit an inside-the-park "frog" homer; how no knot, no matter how snarled, would stay that way once he began to untie it. Little girls jumping rope chant:
"Ma-niac, Ma- More...
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Sep 21, 2007
Liz
rated it: 
I really didn't enjoy this book. I feel like the story didn't really go anywhere. Spinelli tried to touch on issues of racial prejudice and poverty, and let the exsistance of those issues carry his story. It didn't work. However because there are touchy issues, it becomes a story that isn't easy to complain about. However I'll be brave enough to say, "I didn't like it!".
As a personal note, I do not find this novel appropriate for children still in gradeschool.
As a personal note, I do not find this novel appropriate for children still in gradeschool.
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Feb 21, 2011
Nelson
rated it:
Jerry spinelli is one of the best witers ever. Maniac Magee is a realistic fictionbook because maniac is invented but it could happen in real life.The perents of Maniac Magee died in a trolley crash.Maniac Magee was an orphan so his aunt and uncle adoped him.Maniac did"t like their house because they cant share.One day Maniac ran away because the hated in his aunt and uncle house.When he left he went to Two mills.In TWO MILLS it is white V.S black.I have schema with this book because maniac
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(2 people liked it)
Feb 18, 2011
Rodolfo
rated it:
I love this book because is telling me the time
when black people and white people were seperted.
This book is realistic fiction because there and
made up characters but,this happend real that black people
and white people were seperted.
Maniac parents died from a trolly crash.Maniac didn't have any
were to live so,he is an orphan.He met a girl name Amanda.Maniac
wentto amanda's house and lived with her.Later he met a boy name
mar bars.Some More...
when black people and white people were seperted.
This book is realistic fiction because there and
made up characters but,this happend real that black people
and white people were seperted.
Maniac parents died from a trolly crash.Maniac didn't have any
were to live so,he is an orphan.He met a girl name Amanda.Maniac
wentto amanda's house and lived with her.Later he met a boy name
mar bars.Some More...
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(2 people liked it)
Feb 18, 2009
Shel
rated it: 
Spinelli, J. (1990). Maniac Magee. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
0316809063
As an orphan, Jeffrey Magee is sent to live with his aunt and uncle who live separately within their house and refuse to share anything. At the age of eleven, Jeffrey, unable to deal with his aunt and uncle’s refusal to interact or communicate, runs away. A year later, he appears in a strictly racially segregated town, doing amazing feats and running like a mad man, earning him the nickname More...
0316809063
As an orphan, Jeffrey Magee is sent to live with his aunt and uncle who live separately within their house and refuse to share anything. At the age of eleven, Jeffrey, unable to deal with his aunt and uncle’s refusal to interact or communicate, runs away. A year later, he appears in a strictly racially segregated town, doing amazing feats and running like a mad man, earning him the nickname More...
Feb 11, 2010
Dawn
rated it:
A really neat book. Excellent! Definitely deserving of its Newbery Award. I think I have to give it a 5! I find myself asking, "Why didn't I ever read this before?" I've certainly heard of it for years. My fourth grade daughter just read it at school and loved it. I really enjoyed the narrative voice and style. It starts out almost like a tall tale, but what Maniac really accomplished is better than a legend. So it's a meaningful story that teaches an important lesson without
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Feb 23, 2011
Beyounc'e.h.
rated it:
Maniac magee was the book I would tell everyone about! I love book! I recommend his book to my friend sarah because this book is just good enough. I wander why mars helped rushll and piper I remember that maniac
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Mar 27, 2008
Becky
rated it:
My absolute favorite book. Yes it is a children's book, but it is so amazing. You will not want to put it down. I read it to my class every year. I have only known about it for 4 years now. I wanted to read a book to my class and let everyone have a copy. We have literature sets at our school for checkout and Maniac Magee had the most copies, so I chose it. I didn't know anything about the book, but we read it as a class and I absolutely would recommend that everyone read it even if you a
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 05, 2009
Patti
rated it:
Wow! Maniac Magee had to be one of the best mid-grade novels I have ever read. The storyline is fascinating, but the mixture of reality, conjecture and legend is what kept me turning pages. I loved the hero, and I especially love the family from the “other side of town” that takes him in. They way they poor love into his lost little soul is amazing and very believable. I also really liked the way the author removed him from that home and gave him the ability to love the old man. Had he gone thei
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 29, 2012
Lisa
rated it:
Genre: Realistic Fiction (Fiction)
Fountas and Pinnell Reading Level: W
Summary: Jeffrey Magee is on the run. He was orphaned as a baby, and when he got older he ran away from his aunt and uncle's house. He ends up in a town called Two Mills which is divided into two distinct sections: the West End and East End. The white people live in the West End and black people live in the East End, and they rarely, if ever cross into the other side of town. But, when Jeffrey Magee arriv More...
Fountas and Pinnell Reading Level: W
Summary: Jeffrey Magee is on the run. He was orphaned as a baby, and when he got older he ran away from his aunt and uncle's house. He ends up in a town called Two Mills which is divided into two distinct sections: the West End and East End. The white people live in the West End and black people live in the East End, and they rarely, if ever cross into the other side of town. But, when Jeffrey Magee arriv More...
Jan 26, 2012
Ellen
rated it:
Young Adult Fiction--read for YA author presentation
Maniac (Jeffrey) Magee runs everywhere--away from home and all over the countryside trying to find a place to belong. After he runs away from his awful Aunt and Uncle he disappears for a year until he shows up at a town called Two Mills, PA. This is a racially divided town with an imaginary line drawn to separate white and black neighborhoods. Maniac dazzles the town with athletic prowess and strength, but what he really wants is a fa More...
Maniac (Jeffrey) Magee runs everywhere--away from home and all over the countryside trying to find a place to belong. After he runs away from his awful Aunt and Uncle he disappears for a year until he shows up at a town called Two Mills, PA. This is a racially divided town with an imaginary line drawn to separate white and black neighborhoods. Maniac dazzles the town with athletic prowess and strength, but what he really wants is a fa More...
Jan 13, 2012
Joe
rated it:
Maniac Magee
Maniac Magee Is a book that takes place in the 1990’s where blacks and whites still did not get along. Maniac Magee is just his title, his real name is Jeffery Magee. His parents died in a accident on a trolly and he is now an orphan. Instead of sulking it off, he ran, as far away as he could from home. He keeps running, he ran all of 5 miles then he saw a girl getting ready to go to school, and she had a suitcase. He thought it was odd, so he asked her why she had a s More...
Dec 09, 2011
Melanie
rated it: 
1. This book would fall under the category of a junior book, other. It has elements of contemporary realism.
2. Jeffery Magee is an orphan who lived with his aunt and uncle after his parents died. They were not a happy couple, and chose to split everything in their life – including Jeffery. After a period of time, Jeffery can no longer take it and leaves the home running and screaming. Without a home, he becomes a legend mixing bravery with a sense of humanity as a forerunner for color More...
2. Jeffery Magee is an orphan who lived with his aunt and uncle after his parents died. They were not a happy couple, and chose to split everything in their life – including Jeffery. After a period of time, Jeffery can no longer take it and leaves the home running and screaming. Without a home, he becomes a legend mixing bravery with a sense of humanity as a forerunner for color More...
Nov 08, 2011
Jasmine
rated it:
My book that I choose for contemporary fiction was Maniac Magee.This book is about a boy named Jeffery Magee whoms parents had died in a trolley accident that left him under his aunt and uncles wing until he ran away from their chaotic lifestyle and Maniac became an orphan and changed the racially diverse small town with his astonshing and improbable accomplishments.Maniac Magee had a normal life until his parents where taken from him by a tragic accident.He then had to move in with his aunt and
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Oct 25, 2011
2abel
rated it:
The book is about the young kid named Maniac Magee. Its about a boy looking for a home that comes too a town of Two Mills , & is trying to look for a home to stay at. He meets a girl named Amanda . He meets her while he's walking around east end he sees her caring a suitcase & asked what she was doing & she told him she had her books in there & he asked her if he could read one of her books. She asked who he was & where he was from so Maniac Magee(jeffery Magee) told her he was from bridgeport &
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Sep 20, 2011
S
rated it:
Probably the most excellent part of Maniac Magee is its devotion to its message without being too heavy-handed, and how it demonstrates its examples by showing them, not telling them. By following Maniac's journey through his neighborhood, rounding out his perspective of his world through the events he gets involved in, the reader's perspective is in many ways rounded out as well. By the time Maniac has come to an understanding about what intolerance does to people and how it defines the way the
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Sep 02, 2011
Emma
rated it:
Maniac Magee is about a legendary boy who is fantastic at sports, can run forever and is not really scared to do anything. Maniac Magee exploits all those crazy and amazing abilities that turned Jeffrey Lionel Magee into a legend.
Jeffrey had become an orphan after his parents died on the way back from dinner in a car crash. Three year old Jeffrey was shipped to Hollidaysburg in West Pennsylvania to his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan. These two hated each other but put their differences aside to he More...
Jeffrey had become an orphan after his parents died on the way back from dinner in a car crash. Three year old Jeffrey was shipped to Hollidaysburg in West Pennsylvania to his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan. These two hated each other but put their differences aside to he More...
Jul 05, 2011
Beth
rated it:
Maniac Magee is a Newbery Medal winner by author Jerry Spinelli. It tells the story of Jeffrey (AKA Maniac Magee), a homeless 11 year old boy who is seeking his place in the world. After losing both of his parents in an accident and running away from his aunt and uncle's house, Maniac finds himself taken in by an African American family on "the other side of the tracks." Literally - in this story the racial divide is clearly evident. The crux of this story is the fact that Maniac does
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Jul 04, 2011
Maddie
rated it:
This book is quite possibly one of the most poorly written works of fiction I have ever had the misfortune to stumble upon. I personally am not a fan of Jerry Spinelli (with the exception of Stargirl), and thought I would give him one last shot. Not only was the writing itself unbearable and slow, the topic is overused and cliché. The emotions are few and far between. Throw in there a sad, pathetic kid whose life does not improve whatsoever and some other worthless surface characters and you hav
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May 01, 2011
Kara
rated it:
This was a very neat book that I throughly enjoyed. While the plot was empty on some aspects of the story the simplicity helped get its message across well. The book follows Maniac (formally known as Jeffrey) through a couple years(maybe 3 or 4?) where he is without a home or family. He is desperately trying to make a place for himself in the world. He is a unique boy, which does not however make his journey easy. He bounces back and forth from a black community to a white community. Making frie
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Mar 20, 2011
Jill
rated it:
Couldn't decide between 4 and 5 stars. Both Anna and Dave said they love this book. Dave has done it as a read-aloud with his third grade. I find Jerry Spinelli's writing style captivating and very real. I like an author who's not afraid to use the word turd in a sentence. Now I want to read his other books!
"Most of the time during the day the little ones drove her crazy; she couldn't stand to be in the same hemisphere with them. But at night, the best thing was to have them snu More...
"Most of the time during the day the little ones drove her crazy; she couldn't stand to be in the same hemisphere with them. But at night, the best thing was to have them snu More...
Mar 06, 2011
Michealhassan
rated it:
The Big Problem
It’s bad to believe how a kid could take so many things from different people? Well, you can experience that in this book, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. It tells a story of how a ten year old kid developed to be from a good smart kid to a big kid who doesn’t care about school. This story starts with memories to terrible endings. It starts like this…
A ten year old boy named David Paterson who used to live in the countryside had moved with his dad in the city. At first More...
It’s bad to believe how a kid could take so many things from different people? Well, you can experience that in this book, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. It tells a story of how a ten year old kid developed to be from a good smart kid to a big kid who doesn’t care about school. This story starts with memories to terrible endings. It starts like this…
A ten year old boy named David Paterson who used to live in the countryside had moved with his dad in the city. At first More...
Feb 21, 2011
Destiny
rated it:
I like this realistic fiction book because it is telling you something sad, over joyed, crazy, and cool. All at the same time. In my opinion it is 4 stars because most kids are to scared to run away like me. I also think it is sad the way his parents died. Now Maniac has no home. Maniac is a very noble, brave, thruthful, and a loyal person because he had the courage to run away. Loyal beacause he stopped the pit from rotting or helped Pipper and Russel for going bad. Truthful because he never to
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Feb 21, 2011
Luis
rated it:
This realistic fiction book was so incredible ,I liked this book a lot because my favorite genere is realistic fiction.This book is about a boy named Jeffery Magee that is an orphan because he lost his parents in a trolly accident.He lived with his aunt and uncle.He got depressed and went to the East end.Then he was adopted By a family that didn't care about skin color.Months passed and a black old man asked to Jeffery if he came to see the monkeys .That day he started to see color and unders
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Jan 24, 2011
Simon
rated it:
This book is about Jeffrey Lionel Magee, an eleven year old orphan kid, lives with his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan in Hollidaysburg, at the beginning of the novel, because his parents were killed in a trolley accident when he was aged three. Then Jeffrey Magee runs out of Hollidaysburg during Jeffrey’s school performance and goes to a town called Two Mills, which is two hundred miles away, because he wants to get away from the horrible conflict between his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan. Two Mills is a town
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Aug 23, 2010
Patrice
rated it:
GENRE: Fiction, adventure, realistic fiction.
SUMMARY: Jeffrey Lionel Magee was sent to live with his aunt and uncle at the age of three, after his parents died. Eight years later Jeffrey could no longer stand to be near the unhappy, silent relationship his relatives had, and he ran away. From then on, he was known as Maniac Magee, for all of the extreme feats of bravery and athleticism he demonstrated while on the run. Maniac has no qualms about heading into the 'black' part of town, More...
SUMMARY: Jeffrey Lionel Magee was sent to live with his aunt and uncle at the age of three, after his parents died. Eight years later Jeffrey could no longer stand to be near the unhappy, silent relationship his relatives had, and he ran away. From then on, he was known as Maniac Magee, for all of the extreme feats of bravery and athleticism he demonstrated while on the run. Maniac has no qualms about heading into the 'black' part of town, More...
Jul 12, 2010
Erin
rated it:
Annotation:
Jeffery “Maniac” Magee is orphaned when his parents are in a terrible train accident. After their death, Jeffery lives with his aunt and uncle who have two of everything because they can’t get along. Jeffery feels pulled in two directions, ultimately has a breakdown during a performance at school, and runs away to a town close to where he and his parents had lived. Jeffery finds several families that love him and give him an address. Perhaps the most interesting facet of Je More...
Jeffery “Maniac” Magee is orphaned when his parents are in a terrible train accident. After their death, Jeffery lives with his aunt and uncle who have two of everything because they can’t get along. Jeffery feels pulled in two directions, ultimately has a breakdown during a performance at school, and runs away to a town close to where he and his parents had lived. Jeffery finds several families that love him and give him an address. Perhaps the most interesting facet of Je More...
Jul 02, 2010
Robert
rated it:
Here is another classic for you, Esteemed Reader, and one I never got around to reading as a kid. Too bad. I missed out. I remember the reason I didn’t read Maniac Magee then was that I knew it was about race relationships and at the time I was in school teachers shoved stuff about race relationships down our throats nearly every day. As I kid, I figured everybody knew it was a party foul to hate somebody for their skin color—that was something people used to do back in the days of Abraham Linco
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Jun 04, 2010
Suzette
rated it:
I'm really not quite sure how to describe this book. Jeffrey "Maniac" Magee is an orphan who lives with an uncle and aunt who never speak to one another. One day he gets fed up and takes off. The book covers a year where is just traveling from town to town, but mostly staying in one town. He gains a legendary reputation as someone who can do impossible feats. Along the way, he takes up residence with different families in the town, some black and some white. The final message is about
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May 23, 2010
Book title :Maniac Magee
Author:Jerry Spinally
By :Naydelin V.
Imagine being an only child and with no one to take care of you when your 3 years old. Well in the book “Maniac Magee” written by Jerry Spinally it explores the story of a kid named Jeffry nicknamed Maniac. Maniac Magee was an amazing 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 accident. So he had to go live with h More...
Author:Jerry Spinally
By :Naydelin V.
Imagine being an only child and with no one to take care of you when your 3 years old. Well in the book “Maniac Magee” written by Jerry Spinally it explores the story of a kid named Jeffry nicknamed Maniac. Maniac Magee was an amazing 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 accident. So he had to go live with h More...
