Maniac Magee - Jerry Spinelli

After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries, in Spinelli's Newbery Medal-winning novel. A Newbery Medal winning modern classic about a racially divided small town and a boy who runs. Jeffrey Lionel Maniac Magee might have lived a normal life if a freak accident hadn't made him an orphan. After living with his unhappy and uptight aunt and uncle for eight years, he decides to run--and not just run away, but run. This is where the myth of Maniac Magee begins, as he changes the lives of a racially divided small town with his amazing and legendary feats.