Craft move: the altering of font

Another craft move noticed in Stargirl, Maniac Magee, and Wringer is Spinelli’s altering of the font for specific purposes. When I say altering of the font, I am talking about the look of letters, the size of letters, and placement of words.

Stargirl shows how Spinelli alters the size of letters and placement of words when he writes, “As we approached, she held up a sign, a huge cardboard sign bigger than a basketball backboard. She set the sign on edge an propped it up, erasing herself. The red painted letters said:

WAY TO GO,

SUSAN

WE’RE PROUD OF

                       YOU” (p. 159-160).

Another example of this is seen when Spinelli writes, “Painted on the sheet in broad red brush strokes was a Valentine heart enclosing the words:

STARGIRL

LOVES

                LEO” (p. 129).

This changing of font is also seen in Maniac Magee. For example, Spinelli writes, “Only the F had been scrubbed away. The rest was quite easy to read, the tall yellow letters the same color as the scrub bucket:

ISHBELLY GO HOME” (p. 68).

Finally, in Wringer an example is seen when Spinelli writes, “Finger-lettered in the chocolate icing along the side of the two-layer cake was a single word:

TONIGHT” (p. 167).

When reading Maniac Magee, readers notice that italics is used to show readers what words are emphasized when characters speak. For example, on page 61 when Maniac is questioned on whether he belongs in East End because of the color of his skin. Spinelli writes, “Maniac gave his answer: “I am home” (p. 61) and later on writes, “This is where I live” (p. 61). On that same page, font size is changed for emphasis. The man who is arguing with Maniac about whether he belongs says, “You got your own kind. It’s how you wanted it. Let’s keep it that way. NOW MOVE ON. Your kind’s waitin’” (pg. 61). By capitalizing that sentence readers can picture the man yelling extra loud when he said this. On page 65, showing which words characters place emphasis on when they speak is continued by Spinelli when Amanda tries to convince Maniac to remain living at her house. Spinelli writes, “‘I’ll go somewhere.’ ‘Somewhere? Like the deer pen?’” and “‘Well, what’re you gonna do for a pillow, huh? I know you put my pillow on the floor’” (p. 65). Also on page 65, is an example where the narrator uses italics to help express feelings of characters. Spinelli writes, “He was making her so mad!” By doing this, Spinelli reiterated how angry Amanda was at Maniac for wanting to leave because the italics show emphasis. Spinelli also uses italics in Stargirl to express that certain words are emphasized by characters when they speak like we do in everyday speech. For example on page 98, many sentences have one word emphasized, like “What did you think, people thought that was cute”, “It was her”, “he gestured defensively – ‘tell them’”, and “She was only a cheerleader”. Lastly, italics being used to show readers which words are emphasized is seen in Wringer when Spinelli writes, “What has gotten into you” (p. 146), “It’s not just you (p. 147), and “But I don’t want it to be over because then it’ll be closer to my birthday” (p.149), in addition to many other sentences.

Although all three books, Wringer, Stargirl, and Maniac Magee share the presence of the craft move of using italics to highlight parts of the text, the books have italics in different types of places. For example, whenever Spanish is spoken in Stargirl, italics are used. In Maniac Magee, hard to believe actions of characters are italicized. For example, Spinelli writes, “When the once-a-week freight train hit Elm Street, he started running from the Oriole Street Dead End – on one rail – and beat the train to the park, no-sweat” (p. 141). On that same page Spinelli writes, “The mysterious hole down by the creek, the one you would never reach into, even if you dropped your most valuable possession into it – he stuck his hand in, his arm in, all the way to the elbow, kept it there for the longest sixty seconds on record, and pulled it out, dirty, but still full of fingers” (p. 141). On a different page, Spinelli writes, “It wasn’t a trick. It was true. The kid was running on the rail” (p. 31).

            Going back to a use of italics seen in all three books, Spinelli mentions thoughts of characters with italics. For example, on page 39 in Wringer, Spinelli writes, “little Palmer thinking, “The boy wants it for a pet”. Looking at Maniac Magee, some examples of this are when Spinelli writes, “Live it up, thought Grayson” (p. 104) and “The minister, thought Maniac. That’s who we’re waiting for” (p. 117). One example of this in Stargirl is when Spinelli writes on page 9, “As she approached our table, I thought: What if she’s looking for me?” These uses of italics are used to help readers pay more attention to thoughts. There are many other uses of italics used by Spinelli throughout his books that I will not get into now.