Maniac Magee- a book you can't drop down

I loved Maniac Magee it was a funny, yet touching, story of Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee, a legend in his youth. His athletic feats preformed are superb, yet he shows wisdom and insight far greater than are normal for his age. The book is a twist of realistic fiction, humor, folklore, and even a little legend.

While the story is very entertaining, Spinelli includes several issues within the plot. Maniac's parents died, and made him homeless. He didn't attend school, but he is a voracious reader. Even thought he's white he finds a home and love with a black family until racial attacks force him to move. A starving Maniac is then taken in by Grayson, a former minor league baseball player who is now a caretaker at the zoo. (hahaha if you want to know what happens next read the book )

Jerry Spinelli was born February 1, 1941, in Pennsylvania. Spinelli credits hisy own childhood adventures and those of his six step children with providing the inspiration for most of his books. He calls the children his "Huckleberry Finns" and says that after living with them for only two months, he began to pa attention to humor from an adolescent point of view. Five years later, he published his first novel, Space Station Seventh Grade.