By Jerry Spinelli

Maniac Magee

By Jerry Spinelli

TEKS Covered: 6.6A 6.RCD 6.17C 6.RCE 6.2B 6.13B 6.3A 6.13A

Manaic Magee By Jerry Spinelli

Before you read the book: (10 points) Write a brief summary about what you believe the plot-line of Maniac Magee will be about. Look at the book cover to make your prediction.

Vocabulary: (10 points)

Choose a word from the list to complete each sentence. appearances clumped bolted bearing groggled straightened squeak apparently

1. Jeffrey made three other ______that day.

2. M r. Beale knew what his passenger ______didn’t.

3. The old man was bumping through the zoo in the park pickup when he spotted the body ______outside the buffalo pen.

4. T he kid’s voice was barely a ______, but it threw him back. 5. Grayson returned at noon, ______zeps and sodas, and was not allowed to leave until he told Maniac one story about the Minor Leagues.

6. It took a while for everything to get ______out.

7. Three kids ______, sure he was a ghost.

8. Maniac’s first ______thought was that it was the buffalo calling to him.

Questions: Questions must be answered in complete sentences. (20 points)

8.1. Describe the setting of the story as Chapter One begins.

8.2. What’s typical about the way everyone reacts to Maniac Magee?

8.3. Why does Maniac leave the Beales?

4. On Thanksgiving Day, Jeffrey says grace. What is he thankful for? Does this surprise you?

What lessons does Maniac learn from the Beales, Grayson, Mars Bar, and the McNabs? A. The author seems to enjoy using alliteration – a literary device where the author repeats the same sound at the beginning of several words. Here's an example: “. . . g rousing, g rouching, grumbling, g riping about something or other."

Using your book, locate three examples of alliteration, and write them below. Write the page number that you found the example on below. (10 points)

Page #:

B. A simile is a comparison using the words “like” or “as”. The following is an example: Where the inner band had stuck to the hair all around the sides and back, she had to chop the hair right off right to the skin so that he finished up with a bald white ring round his head, like some sort of a monk." (10 points)

What two things are being compared in this example?

Find two examples of similes in your book. Write the page number of the example, and write the example in the boxes below.

a) Page number: ______

Page number: ______A. A Book Cover (20 points)

Create a book cover for Maniac Magee. Be sure to include the title, author, and a picture that will make other students want to read the novel. Your book cover must be colored. B. Storyboard (20 points)

A storyboard is a series of pictures that tell about an important event in a story. A storyboard can describe one scene – or the entire novel.

Complete the storyboard below illustrating an event described in Maniac Magee. You may wish to practice your drawings on a separate piece of paper.