Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Rating: 3.5, rounded to 4
Published: 1990
Setting: Twin Mills 


Jeffery Magee has a normal childhood, two parents that love him and a home to go to every night. That is until that is ripped from him in a blink of an eye. Jeffery is now an orphan with no where to go and craving for a place to call a home. Maniac as he's soon called by the people of Twin Mills, doesn't see boundaries and and friends people on both sides of Twin Mills, the whites and the blacks. Its a chance meeting though of two different people that change his life forever.

I thought this was a great book for a younger audience. I can see why it won the Newberry. This isn't a book that I knew about as a child but I think that my future children will definietly read it. It teaches a good lesson, that there is no difference in skin color, that people are people and live the same way regardless of how they look.