Could not stop reading, wanted more

When my daughter read this book she could not put it down, and when she was done reading it she wanted to read more chapters. This story is a lesson in compassion.

It starts out with a boy who is an orphan who runs around making friends with all kinds of people. But when he comes to one part of town where the black people live they all stare at him because he is white.

He meets a school girl who carries a suitcase to and from school with everything she owns in it because her little brothers distroys everything.

He becomes friends with this black girl and her family and they let him move in with them. He helps them in so many little ways like when the boys don't want to take a bath he gets in the tub with them to make them feel more comfortable.

People in the town don't like the idea of this so Maniac runs away and ends up in the park zoo with an old man named Grayson. (He is my daughters favorite character) He is so nice to the boy that they are like family. These two white people live in Grayson's shack by the zoo. After a while Grayson dies:( and Maniac is left on the run again.

He finds a little white boy for a while who has no mother and the father is not very clean and organized. They eat like dogs and have a strange way of life.

Then he remembers the first family he lived with and goes back to see them and introduces them to the white family. Also he gets dared to do things by other boys in the town.

There is a mother in town who blows a whisle to call her family for dinner, so sometimes he eats with them.

He has a big effect on bringing the town all together and showing how they can all care about each other.