Let Me Tell You A Story

Ok everyone, sit down 'cause I'm about to do some serious name dropping.  I met Jerry Spinelli, author of today's book Maniac Magee. That's right I met him-and not at a book sign or something generic like that I met him at my aunt and uncles house.   They live near each other and happen to be friends.  Ok so honestly I don't remember much about the meeting.  I was probably 7-8 and I remember everyone telling me this is Jerry Spinelli (because I was a big reader even then and everyone knew I had read Maniac Magee) but I was a shy child so we didn't really talk.

What really struck me as I read this book was, "I know these places."  Spinelli chose to set the book in Pennsylvania and since I've lived here for a few years now I recognized the names of the towns.  Its not a huge deal, but it does make you feel more connected to the story.  I think knowing the setting helps you more fully engage with the story.

Speaking of story Maniac Magee is a phenomenal story.  The tone of the book is as if Spinelli just called you over and said, "let me tell you a story."  Take this line for example, "So there's Arnold Jones, held up by all those hands, flopping and kicking and shrieking like some poor Aztec human sacrifice about to be tossed off a pyramid."  How can you not want to read a book that's written like that?

But it isn't just a well-told story.  This story has depth, it's one of those books you can read over and over and get something different out of it each time.  This book reveals two of Maniac's (or Mr. Maniac as the little kids call him) revelations. Maniacs real name is Jeffery but he is only called that in his house because, "Inside his house, a kid gets one name, but on the other side of the door its whatever the rest of the world wants to call him."  Once we leave the safety of our home we lose control and who knows what people will call us.

The second revelation deals with issues of race (and you'll have to read the book because there is no way I can adequately summarize the situation in a few sentences here).  There were tensions building, "but Maniac couldn't see it.  And then all of a sudden he could." When kids are little they have that sparkle in their eyes-as if everything is perfect and the world is just wonderful, but once they get a little older (my guess is 2nd-3rd grade) they lose that sparkle a little bit at a time and by middle school its pretty much gone completely.  Whats great about Maniac is that even though he has had this revelation and the sparkle is gone for a little bit, he doesn't lose his optimism and he fights to get the sparkle back.

Facing the world, telling a complex story, keeping that sparkle...that's kids stuff.