50 Fun Facts About Maniac Magee

Which food does Maniac turn out to be allergic to while living with the Beale family?

Pizza is also the prize Maniac later wins a year's supply of, one large pie every week, for a feat outside a corner store.

What does Little League bully John McNab hurl at Maniac after failing to get a fastball past him?

A frog was McNab's last trick, and Maniac simply bunted it. While McNab scrambled after the hopping target, Maniac ran all the way round the bases for a home run.

Which zoo animals share their pen with Maniac until groundskeeper Earl Grayson finds him?

Buffalo, a mother and her calf, take Maniac in after he walks out on the Beales. He comes back to their pen near the end of the story when he again has nowhere to go.

What does Amanda Beale carry her books to school in, making Maniac think she is a runaway?

A suitcase keeps Amanda's books safe from her crayon-loving little brother and sister and a dog that chews everything. Maniac talks her into lending him one.

What famous tangle, hanging outside a corner store, does Maniac spend a whole day undoing?

Cobble's Knot was a store's long-running publicity stunt, and Amanda hoped that undoing it would make the whole town accept Maniac. He stopped partway for a snack and a nap.

How does Maniac cross the finish line when he beats East End rival Mars Bar Thompson in a race?

Backwards is how Maniac finished, and he felt bad about it at once. Showing up Mars Bar in front of the whole neighborhood only deepened the grudge between them.

Which baseball legend does Earl Grayson tell Maniac he once struck out as a minor league pitcher?

Willie Mays struck out against Grayson, and Maniac later made the story into a handmade book as a present for him. Grayson himself never reached the major leagues.

What kind of accident kills both of Maniac Magee's parents when he is three years old?

A trolley crash killed both parents at once, and Maniac was sent to live with an aunt and uncle. For years afterwards he avoids the place where it happened.

Which top American children's book prize did Maniac Magee win the year after it was published?

The Newbery Medal honors the most distinguished American children's book of the year. It is named for John Newbery, an 18th-century British bookseller.

Which Tastykake snack cakes does Earl Grayson buy for a starving Maniac on the day they meet?

Butterscotch Krimpets keep Maniac going through the whole story, and he even stops for a pack in the middle of his most famous feat. Tastykake has sold them since 1927.

What is Maniac Magee's real first name, which the Beale family keeps using at home?

Jeffrey Lionel Magee is his full name, but only Amanda knew it on his first day in town, so the kids who saw his feats called him Maniac instead.

Which road marks the line between the East End and the West End of Maniac Magee's Two Mills?

Hector Street is where John McNab's gang stops chasing Maniac, sure that crossing it will land him in trouble. He later walks out of town straight down the middle of it.

Where are runaways Piper and Russell McNab heading when Maniac finds them with stolen snacks?

Mexico was the plan, but Maniac coaxed the two boys back home by promising to show them a shortcut there. Their big brother turned out to be his old rival John McNab.

Which picture book is the first that Earl Grayson reads all the way through with Maniac's help?

The Little Engine That Could was Grayson's first complete book, and the pair celebrated with a corn muffin and apple juice. He had gone his whole life without learning to read.

Which American author, who also wrote Wringer, Loser and Eggs, is the creator of Maniac Magee?

Jerry Spinelli grew up wanting to play major league baseball and turned to writing at 16, after a poem of his about a football win ran in the local newspaper.

In Maniac Magee's Two Mills, what decides whether a family lives in the East End or the West End?

Skin color splits the town: Black families live in the East End and white families in the West End. Maniac crosses back and forth as if he cannot see the line.

What does Maniac do when East End tough kid Mars Bar Thompson dares him with a half-eaten candy bar?

Maniac takes a bite, right over Mars Bar's own tooth marks, which leaves the East End's toughest kid confused and angrier than before.

Whose backyard, feared by every child in the West End, does Maniac enter to rescue a boy?

Finsterwald's yard at 803 Oriole Street was where high schoolers dumped smaller kids for sport. After the rescue, Maniac sat down on the front porch and opened a book.

Earl Grayson dies five days after which holiday that he and Maniac spend together?

Christmas that year meant a decorated tree, visits to the zoo animals and presents for each other. Maniac was the only mourner at Grayson's burial, and afterwards he ran.

What are the rhyming names of Amanda Beale's little sister and brother, who adore Maniac?

Hester and Lester are the reason Amanda keeps her books under guard, since they take crayons to anything they find. They are the ones who pull Maniac back to the Beale house after his big race.

What keepsake from his playing days does Earl Grayson give Maniac as a final holiday present?

His old glove, the one he wore through all his years in the minor leagues, was the last gift Maniac opened. Maniac later loses his temper when two small boys kick it around.

At which Revolutionary War site does Maniac shelter in a replica cabin after Earl Grayson's death?

Valley Forge is where two small runaways stumble on Maniac two nights later, and looking after them gives him a reason to get up again.

Which of Amanda Beale's prized books is torn into confetti as the town celebrates Maniac's feat?

An encyclopedia, the 'A' volume, was Amanda's favorite, and she had left it in plain sight of the living-room window. Its destruction convinces Maniac to leave the Beales.

What is the name of the West End gang, led by John McNab, that chases Maniac across town?

The Cobras gave up the chase the moment Maniac crossed into the East End, a part of town they would not enter. They later lounge around the McNab house drinking and smoking.

Which family, with ten children of their own, feeds Maniac whenever he turns up hungry?

The Pickwells set a place for anyone in need, and Maniac later takes Mars Bar to dinner there to show him the best the West End has to offer.

In which park building do Maniac and Earl Grayson make a home among the baseball equipment?

The band shell's equipment room was only meant as a place for Maniac to recover, but Grayson ended up moving in with him and the two decorated it for the holidays.

What does Maniac paint on the door of his home with Earl Grayson after Thanksgiving dinner?

A house number, 101, gave Maniac the thing he had wanted most since running away: an address of his own. He paints over it when he leaves.

In which US state is Two Mills, the fictional town where Maniac Magee becomes a legend, located?

Pennsylvania is the author's home state, and he modeled Two Mills on the town where he grew up, down to its zoo and the river beside it.

During what event does Maniac start screaming at his feuding aunt and uncle, then run away?

A school musical was the breaking point: Maniac spotted Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan sitting on opposite sides of the auditorium, and he never went back to their house.

What does Earl Grayson call the trick pitch he announces to the batter and later teaches Maniac?

The stopball seems to halt just as it reaches home plate, and Grayson says he found it while playing in the Texas League. Maniac swings at it for weeks and cannot drive it past the infield.

What birthday present does Maniac show Piper McNab but hold back until the school year ends?

A compass was the bait: Maniac told the two would-be runaways they could have it at the start of summer and use it to sail around the world if they still wanted to.

What do Maniac's hosts, the McNabs, build in their living room in case the East End attacks?

A pillbox, a small fortress, went up right in the McNab living room. Maniac, who had lived happily in the East End, knew the invasion they feared was never coming.

Where is Earl Grayson living when he first meets Maniac and takes him for a hot shower?

The YMCA was Grayson's home, and he offered Maniac a bed there too. Maniac said no, wary of the bad luck he seemed to bring to anyone who took him in.

Which habit, picked up on the football field, earns Maniac a slap from Mrs. Beale?

Trash talk thrilled Maniac with its rhythm and swagger, but Mrs. Beale would not have it in her house. Having to smack him upset her more than it upset him.

Where does Russell McNab freeze in terror, leaving Mars Bar to make the rescue Maniac cannot face?

On a high trestle above the river, Russell could not move. Mars Bar brought him down and took both McNab boys home, where his mother fed them and fussed over them.

Which children's TV network turned Maniac Magee into a television movie that first aired in 2003?

Nickelodeon shot its version in 2001 but did not broadcast it until two years later, and the script went on to be a finalist for a Humanitas Prize.

Which river separates Maniac Magee's Two Mills from the town where his parents once lived?

The Schuylkill is a real river, and the author grew up beside it in the town he used as the model for Two Mills.

What keeps Maniac's Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan married even though they cannot stand each other?

Strict Catholic beliefs rule out divorce for the pair, so they divide the house instead and stop speaking to each other altogether.

What is the nickname of James Down, the football star Maniac beats to a pass on day one?

Hands became Maniac's regular football partner in the East End that summer, and together the two made a team that nobody could stop.

What does the story call the unexplained months between Maniac running away and reaching Two Mills?

The Lost Year covers the two hundred miles between his aunt and uncle's house and Two Mills. Nobody in the story can say how he spent it.

Which medieval event is the subject of the first book that Amanda Beale agrees to lend Maniac?

The Children's Crusade book stays in Maniac's hand through his whole first day in town, even while he intercepts a football and steps up to bat.

Which real town, the birthplace of Maniac Magee's author, served as the model for Two Mills?

Norristown has its own Elmwood Park Zoo, the real counterpart of the one where Maniac beds down, and the author spent his childhood there.

In which town, two hundred miles from Two Mills, do Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan raise Maniac?

Hollidaysburg was Maniac's home from the age of three until he bolted at eleven, leaving behind both the house and his school.

What new candy-bar nickname does Amanda Beale give Mars Bar Thompson at the end of Maniac Magee?

Snickers was Amanda's way of taking the menace out of the East End's tough guy. He had woken her in the middle of the night to help him bring Maniac home.

In which real town, just across the river from Two Mills, was Maniac Magee born?

Bridgeport was home for his first three years. Nobody knows why his long run ended in Two Mills, but it stopped within sight of where he began.

Which dance do Maniac and Earl Grayson try after their Thanksgiving feast, to Grayson's records?

The polka was the only music Grayson owned. He had carried over a record player the week before, along with a stack of records that were all polkas.

Which actress plays the adult Amanda Beale, narrator of the Maniac Magee TV movie?

Jada Pinkett Smith opens and closes the film, telling the legend to children in a park. Kyla Pratt plays Amanda as a girl.

Which novel by Maniac Magee's author, about a quirky newcomer at Mica High, became a Disney+ film?

Stargirl came out ten years after Maniac Magee and reached the screen in 2020 with Grace VanderWaal in the title role.

Where does Maniac spend his snack money on old books so he can teach himself?

The library sold off its old books, and Maniac bought them each morning to study on his own. Seeing this, Grayson admitted that he had never learned to read.

What damage in the McNab house does a gang member leap through, nearly landing on Mars Bar?

A hole in the floor of the second story opens right above the living room. One of John McNab's friends leaps through it during a birthday party and nearly lands on Mars Bar.