Jerry+Spinelli

|| Biography Jerry Spinelli was born February 1, 1941 in Montgomery County of Norristown, Pennsylvania. His carrier started in an age of sixteen when he wrote a poem on their Football victory, and later on his father decided to publish it in the local newspaper. It was his time for him to realize he was not to become a Major League Baseball player; it was his time to become a writer. He graduated from Gettysburg College in 1963 and he got his MA from Johns Hopkins University in 1964. He is a children author of fictional stories about childhood and early adulthood. He most well know novels are Maniac Magee and Wringer. || || || **"Many a day I looked up to see planes or airships--dozens, sometimes hundreds of them--moving in neat geometric shapes across the sky" (3)** This was during the early 1940s. World war П was going on that time in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Therefore, people in the cities and towns were able see the air raid drills practice. For Jerry Spinelli, it was just a normal day were he had something fun to watch on. He was then just a kid. At that time, he did not have any idea about what was happening in the big world.
 * || Jerry Spinelli || Knots in My Yo-yo String || ||

When Jerry was 6 years old, Gil Dodds was his own hero. Being a fabulous athlete and at the same time a minister what else could you say. He admired Gil for being a great athlete as well as a minister. At this time, Jerry was in to all sports; he loved playing all different kinds of sport. He did not even try to use his writing skills at this time.
 * "I'm getting the autograph of Gil Dodds, a mile-run champion (and minister)" (22)**

The internal improvements in 1800s in the United State included the improvements of the railroads. First, they built railroads to the big cities that were not close to the water in order to trade goods. At the time when Jerry was young, every city had railroads for transporting goods and people. As he says in the book, many times he could hear the train go by during the night.
 * "As the train went by, I counted the cars: boxcars, tankers, flatcars, coal hoppers" (85)**

At this time, baseball was one of the most popular sports in the United States. Jerry had always loved the sport and therefore he kept track of the baseball leagues. Every Sunday, he read all the baseball league statistics from the newspaper, but he never mentions in the book that he went to watch a game.
 * “From April to September in the Sunday** **Philadelphia** **inquirer, I read the major league baseball batting statistics” (89)**

John Ryan

“She” is Jerry’s mother. The teacher could not believe that it was his own work. She were thinking that Jerry had copied it from a book, but if she just had known Jerry did not read books at this time, she would have been amazed about his own work.
 * ”She met with my teacher, ho told her she did not believe that my poem about Mexico was not my own work” (93)**

Jerry never ask anyone why do blacks always sit together, or why do whites always sit together. He saw these little separations in a hundred places and a hundred different ways, and he never once did I ask why. At this time, it was just normal that white people did not sit with black people. Later on in his biography, Jerry gets to go to school with black people and in high school one of his best friends, Louis Darden , was black. After being a friend with Louis, Jerry realized that black and white people are the same in spite of there skin color.
 * “When my father took me to high school basketball games, I noticed that most of the black people sat in one section of the bleachers." (105)**

The “problem” with the black people was not a problem for him. It was just a normal thing. It has always been difficult to understand how American people treated the black people in the 1950s. In Finland there have never been exposed to racial discrimination. They were supposed to be free, but still they did not really have any rights during this time period. By reading Jerry Spinelli’s book, it gave good respective on how kids as Jerry did not know about the blacks’ history in America. Therefore, during his childhood, he never understood why there was racial separation.



Work citied:

"7893699_115765158953.jpg" Nov 14 2009 Web 

"Jerry Spinelli" 30 Oct 2009 Web < []>  "jspinelli.jpg" 10 Nov 2009 Web 

Spinelli, Jerry. //Knots in My Yo-yo String:// The Autobiography of a Kid. Copyright 1998

" spin_1953.jpg" 12 Nov 2009 Web < www.authors4teens.com/ jspinelli/spin_1953.jpg>