Maniac Magee

Summarized by Ms. Evans’ ELA 6 class

Directions:

1. Read your chapter of Maniac Magee.
2. Write a short summary of your chapter on Google Docs.
3. Add a slide to this Google Slides presentation. Cut and paste your summary to your slide. Add your name.
4. Click Share, and add the next classmate’s email (make sure it is set to “can edit”).
5. Pass the book to the next classmate, with a bookmark at their chapter.

Chapter Assignments

Chapter 17

It is a hot, hot day in August. At the vacant lot, at the corner of Chestnut and Green, on the East side, Maniac is playing in the water of a fire hydrant with all of the other kids. The whole neighborhood is there, and it’s like a big block party. Maniac is having so much fun, that it takes him a while to hear a voice calling him “Whitey.” The voice is coming from an old man, a bit disheveled in appearance, who tells him to go home. Maniac tells him that he is home, and gives him the Beale’s address, but the man says “You got your own kind. It’s how you wanted it,” and tells him to go to the West side. The old man yells at everyone, “Black is black! White is white!” and says everyone should stick to their own kind. Maniac can’t sleep and starts getting up even earlier for his morning runs. One morning, Amanda, Hester, and Lester try to distract him, and keep him from going home. When he gets there, he finds Mrs. Beale scrubbing the house; someone had written in chalk, “FISHBELLY GO HOME.”

-Ms. Evans

Chapter 18 - Kindra Rutledge

Amanda told him, “Don’t listen to that old coot, he’s goofy.” Amanda explained to him that the chalk was no big deal; Mrs. Beale needed something to clean anyway. Maniac was going to leave, but Amanda tried to convince him to stay. She said “You’ll starve. Freeze. Be homeless. Where will you go to the bathroom?” Maniac was leaving. Amanda was being snotty because she didn’t want him to leave. On his way out, she kicked his sneaker. She told him he couldn’t use any of her books, so he said “I’ll get a library card.” But Amanda said, “You can’t, unless you have an address.” He left, and didn’t come back for lunch… or dinner. Amanda rode her bike everywhere, looking for him. East and West End. When she got home she stayed up late. Maniac walked through the door. The next day Maniac untied a yo-yo string knot for some kid that lives down the block. Then Amanda had an idea to make people like him. “Have you ever heard of Cobble’s Knot?”

Chapter 19- Logan Siler

Original Mr. Cobble wasn't doing too well. So one morning, as he unlocked the front door he saw a Knot. It was dangling from the flagpole that hung over the big picture window. He got out a pair of scissors and was about to snip it off,when he noticed what an unusual and incredible knot it was. And then got an idea. He could offer a prize to anyone who untangled the Knot. So he publicized it and he announced that whoever. Could untie the Knot got his picture on the front page of the newspaper, Cobble’s Corner in the background. He thought that would make his business more successful but it didn't. But eons later, when Maniac Magee came to town, Cobble's Corner was still there. But only now it sold pizza instead of groceries. And the prize was different . It had started out to being sixty second alone with the candy counter; now it was one large pizza per week for a whole year. Which in time made the Knot practically priceless.

Chapter 20-Riley Hopper

Maniac Magee started trying to undo the knot on Cobbles Corners door. He took a while studying the knot for a while then started untangling it. After about 1 hour people started to leave and some guy said “He's not even at the end of the string, lets leave!” Everyone left, but Maniac was still untangling the knot. After lunch some people came back to watch Maniac. It still took a long time, but after awhile he finally untangled the knot. People were cheering and clapping at him. When everyone left, Maniac took a nap on the picnic bench. All that was left of that knot was a small moldy fuzzy string, laying on Maniacs stomach.

Chapter 21- Simon Dixon

There was a huge celebration at Cobble's Corner store, with cap guns, war whoops, and homemade confetti. Everyone but one person, Amanda Beale, was cheering. She was pushing through the crowds, grabbing all of the confetti. Maniac saw why, they were scraps of her encyclopedia, torn of it! Maniac decided that he wouldn't let the Beales keep getting hurt because of him, so he headed up Sycamore. When he got to Hector street he saw that the Cobras were waiting for him. So he began to walk down the middle of the road, the invisible divider between East and West end. The cobras followed on their side, and some East enders followed on their side, yelling at each other. And in this way, maniac walked right out of town.

Chapter 22 - Gordon LaBuff

Maniac Magee went to the Elmwood Park Zoo. There he stayed in the buffalo section, only, one morning, he fell off a fence. Later he was found by an old man named Grayson who took him to a baseball-equipment room. Grayson got Maniac some food and Maniac told about where he used to live. He also told Grayson that the reason that he was with the buffaloes was because he thought it was the deer pen, which he then learned that the deer and the buffaloes had been recently switched. Then Maniac asked for some butterscotch Krimpets and Grayson answered,”Let’s go!”

Chapter 23 - Ean Nelson

Grayson got the Krimpets all right. He bought a whole box of three-packs. With ten packs to a box, that was thirty butterscotch Krimpets. Maniac thought he must have climbed out of that buffalo pen right into Heaven. Then Grayson took Maniac home. Home for the old man was the Two Mills YMCA. He lived in a room on the third floor. But he didn’t take Maniac up there. He took him downstairs to the locker room. He got him the towel and a cake of soap, told him to take off his rags, and pointed the way to the showers. Maniac stayed in the shower for an hour. He hadn't done this since his last bath with the little ones. He smiled at the thought of them shrieking and splashing. When Maniac finally forced himself from the shower, he found the old man waiting with clothes. Grayson's clothes.

Chapter 24 - Caelyn Gronlund

Grayson looked at his watch and said time to quit and eat dinner. He was kidding of course but Maniac took him seriously and said great! Where to? Grayson took him to the nearest diner. Grayson had a way of jumping into a subject without warning. maniac was eating when he said “them black people, they eat mashed potatoes, too? Maniac said Mrs. Beale made them a lot. grayson said Mrs. Who?

Maniac asked if he knew the Beales and he shook his head. Maniac was saying how the were his family. Grayson blurted out “how ‘bout meatloaf?” Grayson was asking about everything, if they used toothbrushes if the ate cake. He asked if it was all the same in their house. Maniac said “grayson they are just regular people, like us. They went to bed and Maniac asked for a bedtime story. He said not me I don’t have any.

​

Chapter 25- Abby Brown

Grayson and Maniac ate breakfast together in the baseball-equipment room and Mainiac kidded about Grayson sending him to bed without a story, Grayson told Maniac that he didn't have any stories Maniac replied “ You wanted to be a baseball player” Maniac was curious and wanted to know if grayson became one and Grayson said that he only made it to the Minors and he could never make to the Majors he also told Maniac that he was a pitcher, Maniac asked what Grayson’s first name was and he said Earl.

When Grayson returned at noon Mainiac told Grayson that he wasn't aloud to leave until he told Mainiac a baseball story and he told a story, Grayson told all kinds of baseball stories to Maniac after that. Maniac helped Grayson with his job that day and Grayson’s superintendent told him that they couldn’t pay Maniac and he said that it was fine, from then on Maniac helped Grayson with his job and they spent a lot of time together.

Chapter 26-Ethan Dunnery

It was impossible for Maniac to listen to such stories empty handed. Maniac and Grayson started off with a baseball and one thing led to another eventually they were passing it back and forth and then using the baseball field to pass farther. Eventually maniac was hitting every ball Grayson was pitching curveballs and other pitches but there was on he couldn’t hit and it was called a stopball. Maniac worked on it for weeks but he couldn’t hit it and the first time he tried to hit it Grayson told him to watch it carefully and he watched it carefully but he couldn’t hit it. Grayson told Maniac he needed to go to school but then Grayson saw the books growing in rows and Grayson then realized what Maniac was doing with his morning he was reading and doing geometry and school stuff. Two days later while playing pepper in the legion infield, the old man said to the kid “So why don’t you go ahead and teach me how to read.

Chapter 27-Tyler Harrison

Once Grayson greed to let Maniac teach him to read,Grayson opened up about his rough childhood,and his teachers who said he would never learn how to read a stop sign.After Grayson was done telling his stories,they went to the Park office at the zoo,where Grayson told his boss he would like to work part time.THen they went to the library book racks and he bought 20 old picture books.Then they went to Woolworths for a small portable blackboard and a piece of caulk.After three weeks Grayson had the alphabet memorized.After a week he could read ten one syllable words.Then after a few weeks he started to sound out words.But sometimes he get the M and N mixed up.The one thing he didn't like was vowels.But he kept on practicing and he finally got it.One day Maniac wrote on the blackborad I see the ball.The old man studied the word and slowly said “I…see...the...ball”.

Chapter 28 Hunter Timm

The first book Grayson had read was the Little engine that could. It took him about an hour to read. When he finished grayson looked up at Maniac, and maniac was just sitting there, so he wasn’t tempted to help grayson. But then later he asked grayson what he wanted to eat, it was on maniac because he had just recently got a toaster oven grayson said, he wanted a corn muffin toasted with butter so it was soft on his teeth. After maniac let grayson sleep on his bed and with his blanket. Grayson said are you sure you want me to sleep here, maniac said yes because he had his pads.

Chapter 29- Analyssa Sandstrom

As winter settles into Two Mills, Grayson and Maniac settle into a routine. They go to watch the high school football game. Two Mills wins the big game. With the help of the 73-yard TD pass from Denehy to Hands down, at the last minute. After the game, a cooked toaster oven and hot plate thanksgiving dinner is put out on the Beal’s dinner table. After the thanksgiving dinner and a round of polka dancing, Maniac goes outside and paints the number 101 on door, giving himself an address; something he has always wanted and has always been looking for.

Chapter 30 Mia Herndon

If Thanksgiving is wonderful, Christmas is paradise. Grayson moved out of the Y completely and into 101 Band Shell Boulevard with the help of his long friendship with the locker room attendant, he and Maniac had the privilege to continue using Y’s showers at pleasure. They nailed a wreath on the door and there was one small window with a still for a candle, so spray on snow would work. The inside would make Santa’s elves feel at home. Strings of popcorn,the trees filled the room with their smell. One day Grayson dragged a pair of tree limbs inside and started sawing at it. When he was done, a wooden reindeer stood in the room, big enough for Maniac to ride. The tree got the most attention of all. By the time the two of them were done trimming it, hardly a needle was seen under it. They went outside because the room was to small to hold their spirit. They crossed the creek and wandered the woods until they were good again. They got a second tree and went home, trimmed it and this time the ornaments were nature’s beautiful colors, pine cones, red clusters of sumac berries, milkweed and delicate thumb-size goblets of Queen Anne’s lace.

Chapter 31 - Nathaniel Savage

It was still dark when Maniac woke up on Christmas morning. As if by design they both stopped at the same spot above the half-submerged rooty clump of a fallen tree. Somewhere under there, they knew, there was a den of muskrats. The old man laid a pine branch at the doorway. Maniac whispered “Merry Christmas.” They visited the animals in the zoo wishing them a happy holiday. Maniac hopped over the Buffalo pen’s fence and gave baby buffalo a present “For you.” he said, it was a scarf or rather three scarves tied together, he wrapped them around Baby’s neck “Next year i'll get you stockings for your horns.” Maniac gave Grayson a pair of gloves and a woolen cap and a book. The book was entitled The Man Who Struck Out Willie Mays. The authors name was Jeffery L. Magee. Maniac in his turn, opened packages to find a pair of gloves, a box of butterscotch Krimpets and a spanking, snow-white, never-ever-used baseball. Grayson pulled out another present and handed it to Maniac. Maniac tore it open --- and gaped helplessly, it was a baseball glove. Slowly, timidly, as though entering a shrine the boy’s fingers crept into it, flexed, curled the cracked leather, brought it back to shape, to life, he put his new ball in the palm and pressed glove and ball together and the glove remembered and made a pocket to give way for the ball. Maniac looked at the ball Grayson looked at Maniac and smiled. Five days later the old man died

Chapter 32 - Ryan Stevenson

Most mornings Grayson was the first one out of bed. He would turn on the space heater, visit the band shell lavatory, then heat up the water, and get breakfast going, and wake up Maniac. On december 13 silence woke Maniac, Maniac went over and whispered “Grayson.” He shook the old man but he didn’t move he took Graysons hand and it was cold. Maniac go his favorite book “Mike Mulligan’s steam shovel.” when he was done reading the book Maniac looked out the window it was night. The next day Grayson lay in his wooden bed, Maniac was the only one who mourned Grayson's death. Maniac smiled inwardly: Hey Grayson look - Mike Mulligan’s steam shovel had a baby. A funeral man with a cigarette Said “ Give it two more minutes, and then we’ll see.” Maniac waited those minutes but no one came.

Wood bed - Coffin

Chapter 33 - Ashlyn Miley

Maniac is very lonely without Grayson. All he did was eat, warm himself so he wouldn’t freeze and run because he had no reason to stop.After, he packed up all of Grayson's belongings he could hold. Before he left for good he grabbed a bucket of paint and covered up the 101. The days he wanted to he ran or slow jogged every once in awhile he would sprint with anger. He jogged through Bridgeport, Conshohocken, East Norriton, West Norriton, Jeffersonville, Plymouth, and Worcester all day . He would turn his eyes every time so he wouldn't see the P and W trestle he tried not to think of his parents death. alleys and railroads tracks, across fields, cemeteries and golf courses. By sunset he was back in Two Mills. Maniac sleeps in abandon cars, empty garage or a basement stairwell. When he ran out of food he would go to the zoo or soup kitchen downtown at Salvation Army. The chapter ended by Maniac thinking he deserves nothing less, grimly, patiently, he waited for his death.

Chapter 34-Matthew Wagener

Maniac is in a cabin and hears 2 voices. The next morning he walks by, stops, and looks inside. It is 2 little kids! One opened his eyes and said “Get a load of this meatball!” One said “You running away too?” Maniac replied “No, not really.” The other one said “Well, we are!” Then Maniac asked where they were going and they said “Mexico!” They start fighting and Maniac finds out that their names are Piper and Russell. He tells them that they are taking the long way to Mexico. He offered to take them to Cobble’s Corner for pizza. They say “Yes” and go there. Afterwards he was walking around with the kids and hears McNab. He doesn’t stop and McNab says to him “What you doing with my brothers?”

Chapter 35-Violette Swart

It took a while for everything to get straightened out. First,Giant John had to be convinced that Maniac was not kidnapping his brothers.”Sure,John , you remember -----(wink, wink).”What was the pitch? What was the pitch?” chanted the urchins. “It was” --- Maniac paused for dramatic buildup----”the stopball.”Maniac had seen amazing things in his lifetime,but nothing as amazing as that house.The front door opened, and seconds later a man clomped into the kitchen.The rest of the night was scenes from the a loony movie.Hearing, as he at last lowers himself into sleep’s deep waters, a door slam, a slurred voice: “Do yer homework!”

Fearing:Will I float?

Chapter 36-Michelle Tippets

Maniac made a deal with Russell and Piper. The deal was that if they went to school for the rest of the week, he would show them the shortcut to Mexico on Saturday. Week after week, Maniac made the same deal with them because he said that it was volcano season in Mexico, and that there would be lava everywhere. Ever since Maniac started to show up at their house, the McNab brothers (Russell and Piper) became famous. All of the other kids came up to them, and were firing questions at them. After many weeks, Maniac had a fear that came true. While he was cutting a pizza, Russell said “No.” He wanted something different than pizza every week. They decided to make another deal. The deal was for Maniac to stand in the Finsterwald’s backyard for 10 minutes. Once they arrived at the Finsterwald’s, Maniac went to the center of the yard, and stood there like it wasn’t a huge deal. After the 10 minutes and still being alive, they added to the deal. It was for Maniac to go up to the Finsterwald’s front door and knock. After he knocked, all they could see is a slim black line between the door and the wall. Everyone besides Maniac was too far back to hear any words that were spoken. Finally, everyone make up excuses to touch Maniac to make sure that he was alive. They also made sure by seeing him open a pack of butterscotch Krimpets.

Chapter 37-Lucas Brown

Maniac eating a whole pack of butterscotch krimpets began a series of heroic feats by maniac. At twenty paces he hit the telephone pole with a rock 21 times in a row! When the once a week freight train hit Elm Street so maniac decided to start from the Oriole Street dead end on one rail and beat the train to the park, ready for no sweat. Then he took of his sneaks and socks and walked nonchalant mind you through the rat infested dump at the foot of Rako Hill.(ugh) There was also a hole by the creek that you would never stick your hand in even if you lost your most prised possession maniac did this for sixty seconds on record and pulled it out dirty but still full of fingers. So it was a feat a week for february through march. He soon learned he was being used for the greater glory of Piper and Russell. He understood. For the Mcnabbs education wasn’t free Maniac paid the tuition every week.

Chapter 38 - Destiny Muniz

Someone yelled after Maniac saying, “Maniac! Come back! We was just kidding! You don’t have to!” Maniac just kept on going, not even being afraid of the East Enders, though he should have been afraid. It was the day of the worms in April or almost - warm, or whatever they say. After the rain there were worms, until the kids squish them under their feet. While Maniac was continuing into the East End, there was a voice saying, “ Yo - fishbelly!” It was Mars Bar! Mars Bar came closer, he was definitely taller than before. Mars kept on talking about how bad he’s been getting, as Maniac was nodding. Also, Maniac was talking about how bad he is to. Mars bar said that he was allot faster than before. Mars and Maniac were going to race. Everyone was preparing for the race, by finding change to bet on, and setting up the the start and finish line. Nobody could find string for the finish, so a mother brought some pink thread. Then, someone brought a yardstick and chalk for the start of the race. The race had begun! Maniac had turned around! Everyone went crazy! They all had a bunch of questions. Maniac wished he could just go to the Beale’s house. He heard the voices of Hester and Lester! There was the Beale’s house with Mrs. Beale and Amanda outside the house smiling!

Chapter 39 Paige Cummings

The chapter started out when Maniac slipped silently out of the house at dawn. He was half a block away from sycamore when he stopped tiptoeing. Then finally, after a few minutes, he passed Hector Street. After a few hours Russell and Piper saw him three blocks away. “You’re alive!” “We thought they got ya!”“We thought they boiled ya”

“ We thought they ate your brains and drank them like a milkshake.”

Piper Russell took of running but Maniac couldn’t help but laugh because of their East Ender facial impressions. Two houses down Maniac could hear a thump actually almost feel it, and father George McNab’s voice saying “Lay em’ down easy, I said. Easy. Then followed by son John “This Easy though.” Then followed by George McNab’s curses that fried the cold morning like an egg. The living room was really hazy with a lot of dust, at the end of the room the Cobras were bringing in cinder blocks. Maniac had found out that they were really doing it, he had been watching them for a long time now they had been planning them for weeks. They were buying or stealing cement, trowels, a level “A pillbox” they called it. Unfortunately they like to overrun the cities this time we’ll be ready. Giant John tilt the last of the beer in his mouth now Maniac could not stay in the middle of and feel clean.