Jerry Spinelli

Biography

Jerry Spinelli (born 1941) grew up in Norristown, Pennsylvania -- the real-world model for Two Mills. He has said that the racial geography of the novel reflects the actual division of Norristown when he was a boy. Spinelli won the Newbery Medal for Maniac Magee in 1991. He has noted that the character of Maniac emerged from his observation of a neighborhood kid who seemed fearless about crossing social boundaries that other children treated as absolute. Like Maniac, that kid never seemed to think the rules applied to him -- not out of defiance but out of genuine incomprehension.

Jerry Spinelli at a glance