Craft move: similes

A craft move noticed in Stargirl, Maniac Magee, and Wringer is Jerry Spinelli’s use of similes. I will first demonstrate this by listing the similes from Chapter 19 in Stargirl. Spinelli writes, “I ran my fingertip along the hard line of his two-inch jaw, rough like a cat’s tongue” (p. 101). Two pages later, Spinelli writes, “The pipe bowl, like some predator, or seducer, drew down the flame” (p. 103). Just two sentences after this, one reads, “Like so many of Archie’s words, they seemed not to enter through my ears but to settle on my skin, there to burrow like tiny eggs awaiting the rain of my maturity, when they would hatch and I at last would understand” (p. 103). Soon after this sentence, one reads, “The purple of the mountains flowed like watercolor” (p. 103). One page later, Spinelli writes, “Archie always spoke to him with respectful formality, as to a judge or visiting dignitary” (p. 104).

Some examples of similes being used in Maniac Magee are seen on page 32, page 71, and page 105. Spinelli writes, “The Cobras were laughing because they figured the dumb, scraggly runt would get out of the East End in about as good shape as a bare big toe in a convention of snapping turtles” (p. 32). Spinelli also writes, “his eyes lit up like flashcards” (p.71) and “The old man gave himself up willingly to his exhaustion and drifted off like a lazy, sky-high fly ball” (p. 105).

Some examples of similes seen in Wringer can be read on page 132, page 133, and page 203. Spinelli writes, “Daffodils clustered like bugle bands in front yards as the Beans Boys left school behind on a sunny, cloudless day” (p. 132). On page 133 Spinelli writes, “Palmer was about to throw his vote to baseball when suddenly the sunlight was briefly snipped, as if a page had been turned in front of a lightbulb” and “six eyes, round as tiny planets, stared”. One more example is seen on page 203 when Spinelli writes, “and his father was smiling and looking down, and his hands were opening like a flower”.