1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Find all my work at MJMunoz.com 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:11,000 Prepare yourself for some off-the-cuff book talk as I tackle another middle grade book, Chapter by Chapter. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:19,000 This is MJ. Welcome to my Chapter by Chapter discussion of, or review of Maniac McGee. 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:24,000 I'm talking about Chapter 2, which is the third chapter because there's the intro, then Chapter 1, then Chapter 2. 5 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:30,000 So, in this chapter, probably the biggest, most important thing is that... 6 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:35,000 There's probably two key factors. One is that supposedly, according to the narrator, 7 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:44,000 10,000 people say that they met Maniac McGee on the outskirts of town or at the border of town when he came to Twin Falls. 8 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,000 Is that what it's called? Twin Falls, Twin Peaks? No, it's not Twin Peaks. I think it's Twin Falls. 9 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,000 Oh, Twin Mills, that's what it is. Yeah. 10 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,000 So, when he came to Twin Mills, supposedly, everybody says they knew him or saw him come in. 11 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,000 But that's not true, according to the narrator. There would have only been a few people, like a handful of people. 12 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:05,000 And the thing that they noticed about him that was peculiar was that as he jogged by, he said hi. 13 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,000 And apparently nobody said hi to each other in Twin Mills. 14 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:14,000 Now, I don't know the character of this town yet. I know that the book is supposed to be dealing with racism, 15 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:21,000 so I don't know if that's because he's a white kid that maybe he ran past black folk at first. 16 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,000 And that's why it would have been strange for him to say hi. 17 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:30,000 And I haven't been to Pennsylvania yet, but I'm in the Midwest now. 18 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:38,000 And I would say it's much friendlier here than it is on the West Coast, for example, where I originally come from. 19 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,000 And I would think Pennsylvania would have been even friendlier. 20 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:48,000 You know, 20 years ago, well, no, 20 years ago. It's been so long since the 90s, I don't remember. 21 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,000 But in the 90s, I'm sure it would have been much nicer. 22 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:57,000 And I would think the author's perspective would have been from having grown up in the 70s or whatever. 23 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:06,000 And I would think that since the Civil Rights Act was in, what, 1969, that this book probably takes place after that or around that time. 24 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:15,000 I think, at least for a while, at least this is my impression of the past, that at some point, the farther back you go, the friendlier people were. 25 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,000 So that kind of doesn't match my perception of the past. 26 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:24,000 But this is a narrative about a certain town. 27 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,000 So I guess that could be just the character of the town. 28 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:31,000 But yeah, I don't know. I don't know. 29 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:34,000 Definitely, it's still strange. This is a very short chapter. 30 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:38,000 I'm almost having trouble with how short the chapters are. It's 45 chapters long. 31 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,000 I don't know if there's an epilogue or not. 32 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:47,000 There might be. Some of them are longer than these current chapters, like, you know, seven minutes, 10 minutes, that kind of thing. 33 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,000 I think I saw as I looked through them real quick. 34 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,000 But a lot of them are short. This one was two and change, which is kind of crazy. 35 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,000 I think chapter one was like three something, actually. 36 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:01,000 So I don't know. I'm going to do that. But I guess, you know, bit by bit. 37 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:10,000 So it's kind of interesting, kind of strange how short the chapters are and how quick things are going on. 38 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:16,000 I even feel I feel like even for kids, like a good 10 minute or 15 minute chapter length is appropriate and good and beneficial. 39 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:20,000 And like, that's kind of the perfect chapter length. 40 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:25,000 The Oz books, which I love, all of those are about like every now and then you're like a six minute chapter. 41 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:31,000 But for the most part, I would say the average 10 minutes, if not a little bit longer. 42 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:40,000 Well, probably the whole average, if you take all 14 of the original bomb books, it's probably like a nine minute average, because there's some short chapters and that mixed in there. 43 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,000 And then there's a long chapter so that the average would be somewhere around there. 44 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:51,000 But these chapters are a little a little too short. So that's kind of not wonderful. 45 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:57,000 But yeah, I really don't know what to say. Like I'm straining to try to say something about this chapter. 46 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:09,000 I did like the description of his shoes after running 200 miles in them over the course of a week that they were like the front of them were hinging on or they were like they're hinged in the back, right? 47 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:15,000 Like they're hanging on in the back and in the front, they're coming off completely like the sole is flapping as he's jogging. 48 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:24,000 And, you know, I was a kid and I had that happen to shoes from time to time, mostly one shoe more than the other and not from running such long distances just from normal wear and tear. 49 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,000 But like that's definitely a kid thing like you can identify with that as a kid. So that's fun. 50 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:33,000 And I do like that. But yeah, I'm still giving this book a fair shot. 51 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:39,000 I think it's just it's taken some time. Let's see what happens when we get maybe like, you know, 10 chapters in. 52 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:48,000 We'll see where that because that's that'll be a well, it's 45. We'll say we'll still 10 chapters is roughly a quarter of the book. 53 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:53,000 Not quite less than 20 percent. So we'll see. 54 00:04:53,000 --> 00:05:01,000 I don't think a book should take more than more than a quarter or a fifth to really get you into it because books can be long and it's a big investment in your life. 55 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:04,000 You don't want to spend all this time to to not be hooked by it. 56 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:12,000 So I hope you enjoyed that. Please remember to like share, subscribe. 57 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:18,000 I invite you to comment, ask questions and share your thoughts with me. It's always more fun when you're part of the conversation. 58 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,000 Until next time, keep reading, be well and do good things. 59 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:35,000 Visit MJMunoz.com for more of my work and help me build up the Fortress fiction.