Maniac Magee
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50 free Maniac Magee trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Maniac Magee is the story of a boy who runs. Orphaned young and unhappy with the relatives who raise him, he bolts, turns up in the town of Two Mills, and within days the local kids are swapping tall tales about him. He outplays the neighborhood bullies, sleeps wherever he can find shelter, and wanders freely between two halves of a town that barely speak to each other. This quiz follows the novel from its opening legends to its final scene. You will meet the East End family who first take him in, the lonely zoo groundskeeper with a past in the minor leagues, the West End brothers he tries to keep out of trouble, and the rival who slowly becomes a friend. A few questions cover the author, the awards and the television film as well. It is written for students checking their reading, teachers looking for comprehension questions for a class set, and anyone revisiting a childhood favorite. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches you something about the story.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which food does Maniac turn out to be allergic to while living with the Beale family?
Pizza
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.
Q 02What does Little League bully John McNab hurl at Maniac after failing to get a fastball past him?
A frog
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.
Q 03Which zoo animals share their pen with Maniac until groundskeeper Earl Grayson finds him?
Buffalo
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.
Q 04What does Amanda Beale carry her books to school in, making Maniac think she is a runaway?
A suitcase
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.
Q 05What famous tangle, hanging outside a corner store, does Maniac spend a whole day undoing?
Cobble's Knot
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.
Q 06How does Maniac cross the finish line when he beats East End rival Mars Bar Thompson in a race?
Backwards
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.
Q 07Which baseball legend does Earl Grayson tell Maniac he once struck out as a minor league pitcher?
Willie Mays
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.
Q 08What kind of accident kills both of Maniac Magee's parents when he is three years old?
A trolley crash
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.
Q 09Which top American children's book prize did Maniac Magee win the year after it was published?
Newbery Medal
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.
Q 10Which Tastykake snack cakes does Earl Grayson buy for a starving Maniac on the day they meet?
Butterscotch Krimpets
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.
Q 11What is Maniac Magee's real first name, which the Beale family keeps using at home?
Jeffrey
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.
Q 12Which road marks the line between the East End and the West End of Maniac Magee's Two Mills?
Hector Street
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.
Q 13Where are runaways Piper and Russell McNab heading when Maniac finds them with stolen snacks?
Mexico
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.
Q 21What keepsake from his playing days does Earl Grayson give Maniac as a final holiday present?
His old glove
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.
Q 22At which Revolutionary War site does Maniac shelter in a replica cabin after Earl Grayson's death?
Valley Forge
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.
Q 23Which of Amanda Beale's prized books is torn into confetti as the town celebrates Maniac's feat?
An encyclopedia
Q 14Which picture book is the first that Earl Grayson reads all the way through with Maniac's help?
The Little Engine That Could
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.
Q 15Which American author, who also wrote Wringer, Loser and Eggs, is the creator of Maniac Magee?
Jerry Spinelli
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.
Q 16In Maniac Magee's Two Mills, what decides whether a family lives in the East End or the West End?
Skin color
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.
Q 17What does Maniac do when East End tough kid Mars Bar Thompson dares him with a half-eaten candy bar?
Takes a bite
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.
Q 18Whose backyard, feared by every child in the West End, does Maniac enter to rescue a boy?
Finsterwald
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.
Q 19Earl Grayson dies five days after which holiday that he and Maniac spend together?
Christmas
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.
Q 20What are the rhyming names of Amanda Beale's little sister and brother, who adore Maniac?
Hester and Lester
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.
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.
Q 24What is the name of the West End gang, led by John McNab, that chases Maniac across town?
The Cobras
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.
Q 25Which family, with ten children of their own, feeds Maniac whenever he turns up hungry?
The Pickwells
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.
Q 26In which park building do Maniac and Earl Grayson make a home among the baseball equipment?
The band shell
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.
Q 27What does Maniac paint on the door of his home with Earl Grayson after Thanksgiving dinner?
A house number
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.
Q 28In which US state is Two Mills, the fictional town where Maniac Magee becomes a legend, located?
Pennsylvania
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.
Q 29During what event does Maniac start screaming at his feuding aunt and uncle, then run away?
A school musical
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.
Q 30What does Earl Grayson call the trick pitch he announces to the batter and later teaches Maniac?
The stopball
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.