BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSJeffrey Magee is an orphan who runs away at age eleven after eight miserable years living with his silent, feuding aunt and uncle in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He ends up in Two Mills, a town sharply divided between its white West End and black East End, and right away he stands out: he catches a sixty-yard pass one-handed, rescues a terrified kid from the dreaded Finsterwald's backyard, hits John McNab's unhittable fastball for four home runs, and even bunts a frog for an inside-the-park home run. Nobody quite knows what to make of him, but pretty soon everyone has a name for him: Maniac.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Maniac Magee
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Maniac Magee. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a kid hit an inside the park home run off a bunted frog?
✓ Answer
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
After Jeffrey embarrasses him, McNab pitches a live frog instead of a baseball. Jeffrey bunts the frog and circles the bases as McNab chases the hopping animal around the infield. The narrator calls it the world's first frogball for a four-bagger.
- First half
In what book does a foster mother scrub yellow chalk lettering off the brick wall of her own house?
✓ Answer
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Someone has chalked FISHBELLY GO HOME in tall yellow letters on the Beale home. Mrs. Beale is out front scrubbing furiously with a yellow bucket when Jeffrey runs up. Only the F has been removed when he sees the rest of the message.
- First half
In what book does a boy take a nap on a wooden table while untying an impossible knot?
✓ Answer
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
After hours of picking at Cobble's Knot, Jeffrey eats butterscotch Krimpets and then lies down on the wooden challenger's table for a fifteen minute nap. He sleeps to clear his head because the hardest untangling work is still ahead.
- Second half
In what book does an old man give a boy his cracked minor league glove wrapped in newspaper?
✓ Answer
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Grayson hides the Christmas gift at the bottom of an equipment bag. The boy treats the flat, pocketless leather like a shrine, slowly working a new white baseball into it until the glove remembers its shape.
- Second half
In what book do two small runaway brothers tell a stranger they are heading to Mexico?
✓ Answer
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Russell and Piper, no more than eight years old, hide in a Valley Forge cabin with a bag of stolen candy and Krimpets. They announce their plan with full confidence, calling the older boy a "meatball."
- Near the end
In what book does a boy walk into the East End on "the day of the worms"?
✓ Answer
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
After a rainy April night, sidewalks on both sides of Hector Street are covered in stranded worms. The runaway crosses into territory where he had been told a white kid does not belong.
