LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Maniac Magee, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Myth, Reality, and Heroism
Racism
Love, Loss, and Home
Human Dignity, Connection, and Community
Summary
Analysis
Christmas is even better than Thanksgiving. By this time, Grayson has moved out of his room at the Y and into the baseball room. They decorate the room as extravagantly as they can. They’re so filled with Christmas spirit that they even go into the woods and decorate a tree with pinecones, sumac berries, Queen Anne’s lace, and other natural “ornaments.”
Grayson’s and Maniac’s hospitable spirit overflows from their own home and into the world around them, implying that the love that’s nurtured in a genuine home will make the world around it better.