Maniac Magee: Before the Story–Part I

by Jerry Spinelli
An orphan runs away from his guardians to search for a real home. On his journey, he performs feats of athleticism and confronts racial prejudice.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Before the Story–Part I, Part II, Part III

Here are links to our lists for other works Jerry Spinelli: Milkweed, Stargirl
15 words 7612 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. legacy
    a gift of personal property by will
    And sometimes the girl holding one end of the rope is from the West side of Hector, and the girl on the other end is from the East side; and if you’re looking for Maniac Magee’s legacy, or monument, that’s as good as any — even if it wasn’t really a bull.
  2. commotion
    a disorderly outburst or tumult
    Later on that first day, there was a commotion in the West End.
  3. hallucination
    illusory perception
    Another swears it was a mirage, some sort of hallucination, possibly caused by evil emanations surrounding 803 Oriole Street.
  4. carcass
    the dead body of an animal
    The phantom Samaritan stuck the book between his teeth, crouched down, hoisted Arnold Jones’s limp carcass over his shoulder, and hauled him out of there like a sack of flour.
  5. stupefied
    as if struck dumb with astonishment and surprise
    As the stupefied high-schoolers were leaving the scene, they looked back.
  6. forbidden
    excluded from use or mention
    They saw the kid, cool times ten, stretch out on the forbidden steps and open his book to read.
  7. pandemonium
    a state of extreme confusion and disorder
    Pandemonium on the sidelines.
  8. intercept
    seize, interrupt, or stop something on its way
    Buzzing about the new kid in town. The stranger kid. Scraggly. Carrying a book. Flap-soled sneakers.
    The kid who intercepted Brian Denehy’s pass to Hands Down and punted it back longer than Denehy himself ever threw it.
  9. fascinated
    having your attention fixated as though witchcraft
    Ordinarily, he would have returned it immediately, but he was so fascinated by the story of the Children’s Crusade that he kept it and read it the next day.
  10. befuddled
    perplexed by many conflicting situations or statements
    Maniac was befuddled. “I don’t know. One minute you’re yelling at me, the next minute you’re giving me a bite of your candy bar.”
  11. converge
    move or draw together at a certain location
    He loved the Fourth of July block party, when the whole East End converged for a day and night of games and music and grilled chicken and ribs and sweet-potato pie and dancing until the last firecracker, and then some.
  12. propel
    cause to move forward with force
    He learned how to jump in front of the gusher and let it propel him halfway across the street.
  13. glum
    moody and sorrowful
    This was driving Amanda bonkers. He was acting so different, all glum, and wiseacre answers.
  14. contortion
    a tortuous and twisted shape or position
    It was made of string, but it had more contortions, ins and outs, twists and turns and dips and doodles than the brain of Albert Einstein himself.
  15. spectator
    a close observer; someone who looks at something
    The rest of the spectators watched Maniac poke and tug and pick at the knot.
Created on Wed Sep 28 11:06:23 EDT 2016 (updated Thu Jul 31 09:34:37 EDT 2025)

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