Maniac+Magee+Booktalk

How would you feel if you’re parents died and you had nowhere else to go? Well, Jeffrey Lionel Magee had that feeling. Jeffrey’s parents died on a trolley accident when he was only three years old. Now, Jeffrey is a thirteen-year-old orphan who lives in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania with his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan. Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan fight over anything and everything. When the fighting gets to extremes, Jeffrey ran away and ended up in Two Mills, Pennsylvania. Two Mills is divided by a street named Hector Street that divides East and West End or whites and blacks. In Two Mills, Jeffrey meets Amanda Beale. When things go bad at the Beale household, Jeffrey runs away and obtains the nickname “Maniac.” Maniac meets an old man named Earl Grayson, who has a baseball background. In the blink of an eye Grayson dies unexpectedly. After that, Maniac moves into an old war cabin and meets Russell and Piper. When they got to know each other, Maniac lived with Russell and Piper. Right away Maniac left because of all the prejudice in that household against blacks. Mars Bar and Maniac ran in the early mornings. When Russell was facing life or death on the trolley, Maniac didn’t save him because that was where his parents died. Luckily Mars saved him. My favorite part was when the talked about the McNabb household and how disgusting and filthy it was. Who do you think Maniac will have a home with in the end?