Maniac Magee

Class division in a small city, a protagonist who crosses social lines, and the question of whether bridges between groups are possible

Racial division seen through a child's perspective -- but where Scout inherits her father's courage, Maniac arrives innocent of the rules entirely

A boy alone surviving on self-reliance -- but where Brian fights nature, Maniac fights the human landscape of prejudice and loss

Another Newbery-winning fable with a protagonist who seems impossibly unlucky and another who seems impossibly talented -- both are really about systemic injustice wearing the mask of individual fate

Race and family in America, written for middle schoolers, with the same willingness to use humor to approach pain