Spinelli's own interpretation of Maniac Magee is slightly different than the majority's reading of the tale. In an interview with Mary Cappello in , Spinelli said, " Maniac Magee , almost nobody knows this, I mean, I began reading reviews when it came out and I was told that this was a book about homelessness and racism and so forth and all those things are true I suppose— operationally, functionally, from my perspective, as I was writing it, what it is is a book about childhood recollected.
In his Boston Globe-Horn Book Award acceptance speech, Spinelli answered a question that had been asked to him by his librarian: "were you Maniac? After securing his place among children's literature greats with Maniac Magee , Spinelli continued to write grade school favorites from his home in Pennsylvania. He published Crash and Wringer in and , respectively. Crash told the tale of "Crash" Coogan, a boy with Maniac Magee's athletic prowess, but none of his humanity.
Wringer , a story about peer pressures, conformity, and tradition, won Spinelli the Newbery Honor in In a review of Wringer , Rosemary Chance wrote, "Even with such momentous conflicts driving the narrative, Wringer manages to evidence Spinelli's trademark humor— It takes special talent to combine humor with sensitivity, but Spinelli manages this challenging combination well.
In , came Stargirl , another novel that examines the social conformity and the rejection of individualism that plagues young adults.
The book tells the saga of Susan Caraway, self-named "Stargirl," in a parable style that echoes Maniac Magee. Spinelli's inspiration for Stargirl's character, the real-life person the world hopes to catch up to, is his wife, Eileen Spinelli.
The stay-true-yourself-message of Stargirl spoke to female teens across the country and inspired a tidal wave reaction. In , the first Stargirl Society was formed in Kent, Ohio to support creative expression, acts of kindness, and individuality. Since then, Stargirl Societies have popped up everywhere—even as far away as Italy.
In , Spinelli wrote a story that broke the pattern of his previous novels. He published Milkweed , a story about a kid's perspective of escaping the Holocaust. Milkweed surprised readers and reviewers alike and many wondered where Spinelli's motivation for the tale came from. According to Spinelli, he simply followed his own golden rule of writing and wrote what he cared about.
Throughout his decade-spanning writing career, Spinelli's ability to understand kids has impressed and awed readers. Even now, as Spinelli nears the seventy-year mark, his stories about puberty, conformity, bullies, and maniacs continue to relate to adolescents. Many assume that his kid's intuition comes from raising his own six children and being grandpa to sixteen others. Spinelli's real insight comes from trips down memory lane.
To Spinelli, a true kid-at-heart, he has not been writing books for kids all these years. Currently, Hollywood producers are working to adapt three of Spinelli's books, Stargirl , Wringer, and Milkweed to film, while Maniac Magee made it to the big screen in His novel, Eggs , is now a play. Spinelli's most recent work is Smiles to Go , published in Today, technology has forced Spinelli to change the way he writes.
Photo Credit: Annamarie Carlson. Cropped to 4x3. Source: Flickr. Skip to main content. You are here Home. Primary Vocation: Literary. Awards: Newbery Medal, Anne V. Abstract: Jerry Spinelli was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania in August 11 Biography The following is an Archived biography. Boston: Little, Brown, Jason and Marceline. Maniac Magee. There's a Girl in My Hammerlock. When Spinelli wasn't in school, he spent time riding his bicycle, skimming stones across Stony Creek, flipping baseball cards, and running on the railroad tracks behind their house.
Spinelli was always involved in one sport or another — he played basketball, track and field, football, and Little League baseball he always wanted to be a major league baseball player. Spinelli didn't read much as a child because he was always too busy playing sports. He reserved reading for times when he was "bored. He also read books by Clair Bee who wrote a series of books about Chip Hilton, a high school athlete.
When Spinelli was in the ninth grade, he felt as though he was on top of the world. He was class president, king of the ninth grade prom, and had a girlfriend. Everything changed when his family moved to a new house. He still attended the same school and had the same friends, but he no longer felt the same.
The old neighborhood had been Spinelli's world for ten years, and he missed it terribly. Spinelli felt lost. That same year, Spinelli's high school football team won a big game. After the game, he went home and wrote a poem about the game. Spinelli originally wanted it to be an adult novel but adult publishers rejected it since the central character was a 13 year old child and finally it became a famous children's book.
Next he created children's books Jason and Marceline published in which is the sequel to Space Station Seventh Grade. In , Spinelli wrote Dump Days. In he wrote Maniac Magee which won the Newbery Medal in the subsequent year. The novel has been developed in to a tv movie. His novel Eggs outlines a relationship that develops between two children out of loneliness. Spinelli published Love, Stargirl the sequel to his previous bestseller in This novel was published by Knopf Books and was followed by Smiles to Go in He is married Eileen Mesi in and together they have six children.
Jerry served in the United States Navy Reserve between and In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
Where did you go to school? Was it anything like John W. It resembled Satterfield Elementary only in the broadest sense. I do remember one or two classmates who seemed to incite the others' disapproval. As I wrote the graduation chapter, I pictured the so-called "all-purpose room" where mine took place, but the resemblance ends there. The teachers in the story do not resemble my own, nor did we have a field day. Are there any of your own school experiences that you used in the book? If so, could you tell us about one or two?
There probably are, but I can't remember any offhand. When I went looking for Zinkoff's experiences, I think I found them on the other side of my own coin.
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