Thursday, October 10, 2013

In Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, what new characters does Maniac meet in Chapter 34? What's their connection to Maniac's past?

The two characters that Maniac meets in Chapter 34 are Piper and Russell McNab.  Their connection to Maniac's past is that they are John McNab's little brothers.  


John McNab is the boy that tried to strike out Maniac earlier in the book.  Maniac, being awesome, hit every single pitch that John threw at him.  Maniac even managed to get a home run off of a bunted frogball.  



And that's how Jeffrey Magee knocked the world's first frogball for a four-bagger.



Piper and Russell McNab are quite the pair.  They are basically the complete opposite of Hester and Lester Beale.  Piper and Russell love to argue, they love to fight, and they love to break the rules.  They fancy themselves as a pair of rebellious bad boys.  



"We stold it!" Screecher blurted.


The other smacked him with his cap. "Shut up, Piper, you stupid sausage. You don't go telling people you stold stuff."



It's their affinity for rule breaking that brings them to Maniac in the first place.  They are running away to Mexico, and that is when Maniac meets them.  Of course they have no idea how to get to Mexico, and Maniac knows that.  The two young McNabs are quite gullible, and Maniac uses that knowledge to convince them that he is a pizza delivery guy.  Maniac also tells Piper and Russell that they have won some free pizza. Maniac then tells the two boys that he will show them a shortcut to Mexico, if they return to Two Mills with him. The young McNab boys agree, and Maniac takes them home only to find out that they are the siblings of John McNab. 



For the first time Giant John looked straight at Maniac. A smile crossed his face. "Well, well, the frog man." The smile vanished. "So what're you doing with my little brothers!"


No comments:

Post a Comment

Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800 is sometimes called the Revolution of 1800. Why could it be described in this way?

Thomas Jefferson’s election in 1800 can be called the “Revolution of 1800” because it was the first time in America’s short history that pow...