Maniac Magee Chapter 42 Summary

  • Mars Bar is uneasy, the McNabs are uneasy.
  • But wait, presents! Maniac shows Piper the compass he has for him, but makes a deal instead of just handing it over. If both of them go to school every day, they can have the compass at the beginning of summer and sail off around the world (if they still want to).
  • The compass only distracts everyone for so long. Papa McNab (thankfully!) leaves the room, and Maniac does his best to distract everyone with games.
  • It goes okay for a while, until the kids want to play Rebels using the pillbox. There's a long, heated debate over who gets to be white and who has to be black while Mars and Maniac stare on in disbelief.
  • It gets even worse though when one of Big John McNab's Cobras jumps through the hole in the ceiling and nearly lands on Mars. Maniac manages to hold Mars back from jumping the Cobra. Maniac barely keeps things under control, but he and Mars do leave safely.
  • As you might imagine, Mars isn't too thrilled with Maniac. He heads off as soon as he can, leaving Maniac on his own, again.