Maniac Magee

Maniac’s full name is Jeffrey Lionel Magee, and he was born in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. After his parents die in a trolley crash when he is three years old, he is sent to Hollidaysburg to live with his aunt and uncle, who live together but don’t speak to each other. At 11, Jeffrey runs away during a school choir performance and never returns to Hollidaysburg.

A year later, Jeffrey (a.k.a. “Maniac”) ends up in Two Mills, a town across the river from Bridgeport. The narrator claims that Maniac’s story has been embellished over time, with people claiming that he was greeted with a parade or that he chose Two Mills because he liked their desserts. Some people also remember Maniac greeting them as he ran past.

Jeffrey meets a young Black girl named Amanda Beale. Because she is carrying a suitcase, he assumes that she is also running away from home. Amanda is immediately suspicious of Jeffrey because he is white. Two Mills is racially segregated; everyone in the East End is Black, while the white people live in the West End. She explains that the suitcase contains all her books, and that she carries them with her to school every day because she doesn’t trust her younger siblings at home to treat them properly. He begs her to loan him a book and promises to return it to her later. She refuses at first, but eventually, she agrees and tells him her home address before hurrying to school.

Later, during football practice at the East End high school, Jeffrey intercepts a throw and punts the football into the receiver’s hands. Everyone is shocked, especially because Jeffrey does this one-handed while holding his borrowed book.

Next, Jeffrey saves a boy in the West End from high school bullies who are trying to toss him over the fence into Finsterwald’s back yard. Finsterwald is the local recluse, and all the local kids are afraid of his house. According to legend, kids disappear or are forever haunted if they set foot on his property. The boy is terrified and faints when Jeffrey suddenly appears. Jeffrey picks the boy up and dumps him in the front yard. When the boy wakes up, he runs away in fear, while Jeffrey sits on the porch to read.

An hour later in the West End, Mrs. Pickwell calls her large family to dinner with a powerful whistle. There are 10 Pickwell children, several extended family members, and a few down-on-their-luck people whom the Pickwells are always helping out. The kids notice Jeffrey at the table but assume that he is someone’s friend. Only after dinner do they realize that he is a stranger who has not been invited. Jeffrey then runs away and shocks them by running right onto the railroad tracks.

Later, Jeffrey makes his way to the Little League field on the West End, where pitcher John McNab is striking out batter after batter with his fastball. McNab is only 12 years old, but he is already five-foot-eight and mean. Jeffrey takes a swing and surprises everyone by hitting the ball. Angered by Jeffrey’s success, McNab pitches several more times, and Jeffrey keeps hitting home runs. McNab goes into the woods to urinate and comes back with a frog that he pitches instead of a ball. Jeffrey bunts the frog and runs toward home base, while McNab chases after him with the frog to tag him out. Jeffrey makes the home run and keeps on running as the other kids cheer and McNab warns him never to return.

Over time, word of Jeffrey’s acts of bravery spread through town, and kids deem him a “Maniac,” which is how he gets his nickname. Meanwhile, Jeffrey/Maniac sleeps in the deer pen at the zoo, reads Amanda’s book several times, and runs all over town.

McNab and his friends, who call themselves the Cobras, look for Maniac, intending to beat him up. When they find him running on the railroad tracks, they chase him down and throw rocks at him. Maniac runs, but the Cobras stop chasing him at Hector Street, the boundary between the East End and the West End. People very rarely cross over into the other side of town. The Cobras leave Maniac alone as he enters the East End.

There, Maniac is immediately confronted by a Black boy named Mars Bar Thompson, who earned this nickname because of the candy that he always eats. Mars taunts Maniac by offering him candy, which Maniac naively takes. Mars is shocked and angry; he takes Amanda’s book from Maniac and tries to keep it, tearing a page loose in the process. Suddenly, an older lady intervenes and forces Mars to return the torn page to Maniac. She tells Maniac that he should go back where he belongs. Her statement leaves Maniac confused.

Maniac searches for Amanda’s house, afraid to return the damaged book but knowing that he must. Suddenly Mars Bar appears again, this time with his friends, and demands the book. He corners Maniac, but suddenly Amanda appears and intervenes. She takes the book and yells at Mars, kicking his shoes until he runs away. She cries over the damage done to her precious book, but Maniac assures her that he can fix it. She invites Maniac to her house.

At her house, Amanda introduces Maniac to her family as Jeffrey. He meets her younger siblings, Hester and Lester, who instantly take a liking to him. He spends the evening with the Beales eating dinner, watching television, and reading to the children. When Mr. Beale tries to drive Maniac home, Maniac declines, claiming that his house is only a few blocks down. Mr. Beale knows that he is lying because they are still in the East End; the house a few blocks down belongs to a Black family. Maniac then admits that he has been sleeping in the zoo because he does not have a home. Mrs. Beale immediately tells Maniac that he will stay with them. Before heading to sleep, he goes outside to stare at the numbers on the door, happy to finally have an address.

Amanda happily moves into her siblings’ room. Maniac settles onto the floor of her room because he doesn’t like to be “too comfortable” in the bed (46). He fits in right away by doing chores, playing with the children, and helping them bathe. One day, Maniac eats pizza for the first time and has an allergic reaction to it.

Maniac is happy in his new home. The Beales buy him new sneakers and take him to church, where Maniac learns to passionately say “A-men!” whenever he appreciates something (51). He can’t understand why the East Enders call themselves Black because he sees a variety of dark shades on their skin. He plays football with the other Black children who all call him “Maniac.” However, Mrs. Beale tells him that in their home, he is just “Jeffrey.”

Soon, the legend of Maniac Magee and his new home spreads throughout town. Young kids bring him difficult knots to untie, while older kids test his sports skills. An older football player nicknamed “Hands” teaches Maniac to “trash talk” (55); however, Mrs. Beale slaps him for using this talk at home. They both cry and apologize immediately after, and Maniac tells her that he loves her. Amanda refuses to share her encyclopedia “A” until she’s done reading it, so Maniac sneakily reads it when she’s not using it.

Over time, Mars continues to bully Maniac, but Maniac doesn’t understand why. He can’t see that his white skin makes him a target on the East End because some people dislike those who are different.

At a block party one day, Maniac is playing in the water from a fire hydrant with the other children when suddenly he hears an older Black man calling him “whitey” and telling him to go home to the West End with his “own kind” (62). Maniac is confused and tells the man that he lives with the Beales. Maniac then has trouble sleeping and goes on earlier runs. One day, he arrives home to see Mrs. Beale tearfully scrubbing away something offensive that someone has written on their house.

Amanda desperately tries to convince Maniac to stay, but he feels guilty that his presence in the house is causing trouble for the Beales. He leaves, and Amanda cries before going to search for him all over town. She can’t find him, so she stays up late, hoping that he will return. Eventually, he does. The next day when a child approaches Maniac for help untying his knotted yo-yo, Amanda gets an idea that she thinks will make people accept Maniac.

Amanda tells Maniac about Cobble’s Knot, a legendary giant knot the size of a volleyball that no one has been able to untie. It’s located at the local pizza place, and Mr. Cobble offers a prize—one large pizza a week for a whole year—to whoever can untie it. Amanda promises that if he unties it, everyone will consider him a hero and will never bother him again. Maniac agrees to try it.

Maniac works on the knot as townspeople watch skeptically. Around lunchtime, he eats his favorite Tastykake butterscotch Krimpets and surprises everyone by taking a nap on the table under the hanging knot. When he wakes, he goes back to work at the knot. That evening, he finally succeeds in untying the knot; everyone cheers, and the local paper takes his picture.

People cheer and throw confetti as Maniac accepts his prize certificate. However, when Amanda looks closely at the confetti, she realizes that it’s made of her encyclopedia A, which has been torn to shreds. They run home and see the empty book with the pages gone. Maniac feels guilty that his presence has hurt Amanda, so he runs away down Hector Street, with McNab and the Cobras yelling on one side and Mars Bar yelling on the other. Maniac keeps running all the way out of town.