#maniac magee

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

Have you read Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (1990)?

yes

no

I didn't finish it

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onJun 29

[maculategiraffe]

anyone read maniac magee as a kid. remember cobble's knot

anyway that's the type of knot my left shoulder has been in. I think I've found the end though

[rainbowofcrazy]

My brain every time I have to unknot my mess of earbuds: I would've killed it in Maniac Magee 💙📚

[an-adhd-infested-nerd]

My life is shaped by the books I read in middle school

[cedarbookhs]

One of my favourite micro-genres, especially growing up, was books about kids or teens running away from home and living in unusual places. Some of these are more serious and involve leaving abusive homes. Others, the home life and excuse for leaving is entirely perfunctory and the adventure is the point. The common theme is that the kid leaves voluntarily (isn’t stranded somewhere, but goes there specifically) and then ends up living independently in some unique setting that gives the story a large part of its identity.

My Side of the Mountain — inside a tree in the Catskills

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler — the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art

Maniac Magee — inside a buffalo house in the zoo, in a baseball stadium, and more places in and around a town where he solves racism

The Invention of Hugo Cabret — a grand Parisian train station, as excellently brought to screen by Scorsese

notabookbut The Kings of Summer — a homemade shanty in the Ohio woods

Last Sam’s Cage — the Calgary Zoo but before the renovations into how I knew it growing up

The Boxcar Children — a freight car

Suggest more if you can think of any, I know there are lots of other examples.

[e-b-reads]

Books of the Spring (April-May 2024)

I started this back in June but then life got busy again...books of the summer will be out soon, but for now: here's some books I read way back in April and May that I think other people should read too!

Maniac Magee (Jerry Spinelli): I think I read this when I was a kid, but long enough ago that I forgot most of it. Anyway, picked it up at a thrift store to put in the camp bookshelf of free books to borrow/take, and wanted to (re)read it first. It's good! A good book for kids (or adults) to read. Silly and exaggerated in the way good middle grade fiction is, but also about racism and family and having a home. Sweet, and a good way to get you thinking.

The Right Sort of Man (Allison Montclair): Yet another first in a historical mystery series, this one following a pair of women who have started their own business in post-WWII London - a matchmaking agency. Except they also keep getting caught up in solving murder mysteries. I enjoyed it; the dialogue and actions are snappy and funny, but the characters also have and acknowledge real struggles (they go to therapy! unusual in a 1950s-set book but handled realistically). I have now read through the latest published book and look forward to more.

Tomboy (Liz Prince): A graphic novel memoir of the author's gender experiences. Not earth-shattering, but I have long enjoyed a book that makes me feel less alone in my own experience of gender. Obviously I'm not exactly Liz Prince (for one thing, based on the illustrations, she's maybe willing to wear skirts as an adult but wasn't as a kid? And I am the exact opposite) but a lot of what she had to say struck home for me. And it's good for books to exist that showcase a small part of the diverse ways people are.

To Shape a Dragon's Breath (Moniquill Blackgoose): This one has done some of the rounds on tumblr for sure, but I did enjoy it, and posted something about it here. An interesting fantasy world that's obviously this world but with alternate history where the Norse colonized the Americas. (And the dragons, that's different too). I don't usually reach for YA fantasy anymore, but I will be looking for the sequel to this one when it comes out.

[readingbooksinisrael]

I finished rereading(?) Maniac Magee,

First of all, the only thing I remembered from the book was Cobbler’s Knot and I was convinced it was at the end of the book, but it’s only at the end of the first part, so now I’m wondering if I actually read the whole thing the first time or not.

Secondly, Jerry Spinelli’s writing about family and inner feelings was as amazing as it always is (except for Stargirl, but I think if Stargirl were actually the main character it would’ve worked). 

The race plotline, however, was too much. It was too much for the book. At the same time, I don’t see the book working without the split town and Maniac going between them. 

It was also awkward at best because you can really tell that Jerry Spinelli is not Black.

[book-hooks]

Maniac Magee was not born in a dump.

Maniac Magee || Jerry Spinelli