Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

[Julie]

Before class, please post a quote from the book and one sentence commenting in on the quote. Happy reading!

[Madeline]

"East End and West End, black and white would begin only when the alarm clocks rang. For now, before sunrise, there were no divisions, no barriers. There were only the people, the families, the town. His town. As much his town as anyone’s."

Maniac is wise beyond his years, putting aside the innocence of childhood and discovering that which even his elders could not see: we are all the same, no matter the color of our skin.

[Mary-Willoughby]

They figured the dumb scraggly runt would get out of East End in about as good shape as a bare big toe in a convention of snapping turtles. Pg.32

For the author to have come up with this description and made it work on this page is incredible. Growing up I was always told that "if a snapping turtle got a hold of my thumb, they wouldn't let go until thunder hit them." To me this quote was hilarious and tied in with my upbringing.

[Ariana]

"And if you want to know what it was like back when Maniac Magee roamed these parts, well, just run your hand under your movie seat and very, very careful not to let the fats get mixed up with the truth" - pg. 2

I just feel like this quote seriously captures the reader's attention. To me, it made me feel like I was about to watch a movie. Not only that, but throughout the whole book I kept this idea of "not mixing up the truth" in mind in terms of myths that had to do with Maniac or of the city's dynamics.

[Alston]

"Fighting him, Maniac, straining to get loose and bust some cobras. Out-numbered, out-weighted, but not out-hearted. That's when maniac felt it- pride, for his east end warrior whom maniac could feel trembling in his arms, scared as any normal kid would be, but not showing it to them. Yeah, you're bad all right, Mars bar. You're more than bad. You're good." page 166

In this passage, Maniac Magee is realizing that Mars bar is very proud of where he is from. He may not stand a chance to fight all of the cobras but he sure would try just to defend where he is from. He says he is bad but is he? I think he uses being bad as a defense mechanism.