When was maniac magee written

The tall tale of a boy known for his fast feet and his ability to bridge the bitter racial divides of a Pennsylvania town drew vast audiences and critical acclaim before it netted author Jerry Spinelli the Newbery Medal.

To date, Maniac boasts sales of 3. It became a personal anthem for me, a vision of how things could be. That was the emotional kernel, and it seemed to patch itself onto a more generalized thought about my next book.

Armed with a creative roadmap of sorts, Spinelli set off on his novel, and his thoughts naturally turned to his own childhood. I really was comfortable with every shade of kid. That was the beginning of a sensitivity, and I had no idea I was building an archive of memories and experiences that I would tap into decades later.

I wrote them down and read them to my wife Eileen. After about a year, Spinelli turned in the manuscript to his then-editor John Keller, former president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. But Keller and Betsy Groban now senior v-p and publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers; then marketing director at Little, Brown quickly began to realize there was something different about the project.

Readers, reviewers, and a closed-door panel of librarians agreed, naming Maniac Magee the Newbery winner of , a development that stunned Spinelli. But after a while, it swallows you whole. You play the game for a while and wave from the convertible, but then you need to stop the car and get out. See, not everyone loves the idea of a white kid living with a black family in a black neighborhood.

So Maniac after a quick detour solving Cobble's Knot takes off. Long story short, he moves in with a buffalo family and then meets Earl Grayson, a washed-up former minor leaguer. Things are really hunky dory for a while: Maniac's got a dad, Grayson learns to read, they celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then Grayson dies. And Maniac is alone. Maniac's not doing so well this time, and ends up cold, starving, and alone in Valley Forge.

These two little hoodlums provide a reason for Maniac to stick around for a while, in a nasty nasty house filled with some nasty nasty people.

But the little McNabs need Maniac, and he steps up. Eventually, Maniac leaves them behind as well to move back in with Baby Buffalo and his mom. That's right, home. To his family. Maniac is alone again.

To deal with his grief, Maniac runs wherever his legs will take him. Depressed and lonely, Maniac ends up at Valley Forge where he decides to die. He refuses to allow anyone else to orphan him. The young boys are running away from home.

Maniac takes the boys back to the McNab house and ends up staying there. The house is dirty and messy and has cockroaches crawling everywhere.

Maniac performs "heroic feats," to persuade Piper and Russell to go to school. Piper and Russell dare Maniac to go to the East End they don't know he used to live there. Maniac uses the dare to get the boys to go to school. A crowd gathers and they race. Maniac wins, beating Mars Bar and running the last few feet of the race backwards.

Maniac regrets humiliating Mars Bar by running backwards; however, his actions cause Mars Bar to hate him an individual rather than white people in general. At the McNab house, the Cobras John McNab's group of friends are building what they call a "pillbox" in the middle of the living room. The "pillbox" is a fortress to protect themselves against blacks. John envisions blacks from the East End attacking the West End all at once, probably in the summer.

The idea of the fortress and the prejudicial attitude that prevails within the McNab household causes Maniac to feel dirty. Maniac leaves the McNabs, choosing to sleep in the park.

He could-n't stand what the McNabs were doing or the way they were thinking. Russell and Piper find him in the library and insist Maniac come to Piper's birthday party. Maniac agrees — as long as he can bring a friend. His idea is to bring Mars Bar and his intention is to teach the McNabs that blacks are human beings just like themselves, and to teach Mars Bar the same thing about whites. They go to the Pickwells' house to eat, and Mars Bar is readily accepted by the entire family.

Maniac has to drag Mars Bar out of the house to prevent a fight from erupting. Mars Bar asks Maniac, "Wha'd you think? Eventually, Maniac and Mars Bar begin to run together in the mornings and learn to respect each other.