Maniac Magee
by Jerry Spinelli
★ Top 10 book of 1990 · #9 on Best Books of 1990
After a freak accident leaves him orphaned, a boy endures eight years with his unhappy aunt and uncle before he simply runs. His legendary feats begin to change a small town divided by race.
Best for: Young readers who enjoy legendary heroes and stories about bridging divides
Maniac Magee is #9 on BookWard's Best Books of 1990, out of 39 1990 books that cleared our data bar.
What Maniac Magee is about
Jeffrey Lionel Magee lost his parents in a freak accident and spent eight years with an unhappy, uptight aunt and uncle before deciding to run. He ends up in Two Mills, a town sharply divided between its Black East side and its white West side. Known as Maniac, he becomes a local legend for his athletic feats, his readiness to help, and his complete failure to notice the lines everyone else treats as fixed.
Told with a warm, lyrical, fable-like touch, the story looks honestly at racism and inequality while asking what it means to have a home and to belong somewhere. It is popular in middle school curricula and has been used in social studies on the premises of reaction to racial identity and reading.
Maniac Magee on the Best Books of 1990
Maniac Magee came out in 1990. Of the 39 books first published in 1990 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #9 on our Best Books of 1990 list.
Why it made the list: 327 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (40 ratings); 27 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1990 list
- Little Girl Lost Drew Barrymore, #7
- The Great Hunt (the Wheel of Time Book 2) Robert Jordan, #8
- Four Past Midnight Stephen King, #10
- Gifted Hands Ben Carson, #11
See all Best Books of 1990 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1991.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 245 want to read it, 27 are reading it now and 54 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.1 out of 5 from 40 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 72 | 55% |
| Reader love | 77 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 79 | 20% |
Questions about Maniac Magee
When was Maniac Magee published?
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli was first published in 1990.
Was Maniac Magee one of the best books of 1990?
Maniac Magee is #9 on BookWard's Best Books of 1990, out of 39 1990 books that cleared our data bar. 327 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (40 ratings); 27 are reading it right now.
Why is Maniac Magee on the Best Books of 1990 list?
327 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.1 out of 5 (40 ratings); 27 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 1990
- Good Omens Terry Pratchett, #1
- Jurassic Park Michael Crichton, #2
- The Eye of the World Robert Jordan, #3
- The Witching Hour Anne Rice, #4
- Flow Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, #5
- The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien, #6
See the full Best Books of 1990, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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