MANIAC MAGEE
JERRY SPINELLI
WINNER OF THE NEWBERY MEDAL
Before the Story
They say Maniac Magee was born in a dump They say his stomach was a cereal box and his heart a sofa spring.
They say he kept an eight-inch cockroach on a leash and that rats stood guard over him while he slept.
They say if you knew he was coming and you sprinkled salt on the ground and he ran over it, within two or three blocks he would be as slow as everybody else.
They say.
What's true, what's myth! It's hard to know.
Finsterwald's gone now, yet even today you'll never find a kid sitting on the steps where he once lived. The Little League field is still there, and the band shell. Cobble's Corner still stands at the corner of Hector and Birch, and if you ask the man
behind
