Reading And Walking: Maniac Magee

Welcome to Reading and Walking, where I go for a stroll and attempt to listen to an entire audiobook. I’m going to review the book and show you what I saw on my walk. Simple, right? For this adventure, I chose to listen to Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. I chose it because it won the Newbery Medal in 1991, and it’s short. The audiobook is 4 hours, 23 minutes. I knew I could walk for that long and finish the book in one afternoon.

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Genre: Realistic middlegrade

Pages: 184 (4hr 23min audiobook)

Publication date: 1990

Content warning: Homelessness, divorce, racism, death, violence
Available at: Amazon | Book Depository

Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee might have lived a normal life if a freak accident hadn't made him an orphan. After living with his unhappy and uptight aunt and uncle for eight years, he decides to run—and not just run away, but run. This is where the myth of Maniac Magee begins, as he changes the lives of a racially divided small town with his amazing and legendary feats.

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This happens every year: I’m all excited to get outside on a summer day. Then I actually go outside and instantly discover that it’s hotter than the deepest chamber of a volcano. Then I remember why I hate summer. I’m not a hot weather person. I melt and get cranky. When I started this walk, the sun was rising, and it was already 81°F (27°C). As I walked, it got hotter and hotter and hotter until I flopped down under a tree and waited for death.

At least I had a good book to listen to while my corpse cooked. This actually isn’t the first time I’ve listened to Maniac Magee. A teacher read it to our class when I was 9 or 10 years old. All I remembered about it was that the main character could run really fast. Yeah. My nine-year-old self completely missed the point of most literature, but I remember enjoying the story.

*Deep breath of scorching air.*
Let's stroll.

I don't know what this plant is, but it's quickly eating an entire fence.

Maniac Magee stars a homeless kid (who can run really fast). He finds himself in a racially segregated town and impresses both the black kids and the white kids with his extraordinary athletic abilities. They nickname him “Maniac Magee.” This is a character-driven novel that follows Maniac’s quest to find a home and to bring his two groups of friends together. (One of his challenges works out better than the other.)

I can see why I liked this book as a child: It sucks the reader in right away. The story is told with hindsight. Maniac has become a legend in the town, and I immediately wanted to know what he’d done to earn the respect of so many children. Maniac is an endearing character. He badly wants a family, but he feels like he’s a burden to people because he attracts trouble wherever he goes.

The characters are where this novel shines. They’re unique, and they really bring the town to life. The audiobook narrator, S. Epatha Merkerson, does an excellent job of injecting personality into the dialogue.

“[T]he history of a kid is one part fact, two parts legend, and three parts snowball. 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 be very, very careful not to let the facts get mixed up with the truth.” – Maniac Magee

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I do have a few quibbles with it. First, the adults seem supremely unconcerned that there’s a homeless, parentless child in their town. For a while, Maniac lives in the buffalo enclosure at the zoo. Everybody just shrugs about it. Buffalos are dangerous! The adult characters feed Maniac and let him stay at their houses, but they don’t alert Child Protective Services or try to find out where he came from. They also don’t seem very concerned when he runs away and doesn’t come back. As a child reader, I probably overlooked the irresponsible behavior of the adult characters, but as an adult, it freaked me out. You don’t let a child sleep with the buffalos! What is wrong with you, people?

I also rolled my eyes at Maniac’s cluelessness about race. He lives in a town that’s on the brink of a race war, but he can’t tell what makes a person black or white? I’m not buying it. However, I did buy the reactions of the characters to Maniac’s friendships. When he attempts to bring his black friends and his white friends together, things don’t go well. Maniac becomes the target of abuse from both sides when he (a white kid) moves in with a black family. I like that Maniac is unable to solve the town’s problems. Racism is a bigger issue than one child can fix.

I’ve felt “meh” about a lot of Newbery winners, but I really liked this one. It’s well-written, and the audiobook narrator makes it a fun listening experience.

Thank you to this dude's family for building a bench in the shade. As a former editor, I'm bothered that they spelled "Honour" the British way and "Traveled" the American way. Do you think that was intentional? (This is the kind of thing I ponder when I'm sweating to death.)

A tiny mule deer in the tall grass.

I hoped this helicopter would land and offer me a ride home. (Spoiler alert: That did not happen.)

I wish my walk had been a better experience. I walked for nearly 4.5 hours, but I only made it 8 miles because the sun is my enemy! It was so hot! I spent a lot of time sitting in the shade, questioning my life choices. The wildflowers were pretty, but I’m ready for fall. Summer is not my thing.

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Have you ever reread one of your childhood books and thought, Wow, I really missed the point of this story when I was a kid?