Maniac Magee- 1991 Newbery Winner

Maniac Magee is a book that I enjoy very much. When I chose it, I remembered that I had read it in school when I was younger, but had forgotten what it was about. It is important for children to read this book when they are around middle school age because they will soon be faced with new forms of diversity issues. Maniac Magee shows these kids how race should not make a difference in who you associate with. It has such a strong message that I enjoyed it more now than I had ever before. I think that it is very important to go back and reread the books that you had read as a child. As you get older, you start to appreciate the stories more and can relate to the issues that they express. I had never been faced with diversity before middle school because we were taught to be friends with everyone. All of this changes as you get older and start to develop your own identity and experience new things. Maniac Magee gave me a preview of racial issues before I ever saw them for myself. Of course, I never saw them to the degree that book the portrayed them, but that does not mean that they were not existant.