Jerry Spinelli is an author of children's novels on adolescence and early adulthood. He is best known for the novels Maniac Magee

Maniac Magee

Maniac Magee is a young adult fiction novel written by American author Jerry Spinelli and published in 1990. Exploring themes of racism and homelessness, it follows the story of an orphaned boy looking for a home in the fictional Pennsylvania town of Two Mills...

and Wringer

Wringer (novel)

Wringer is a Newbery Honor-winning 1997 young adult novel by Jerry Spinelli.-Plot introduction:When Palmer LaRue turns nine , it is traditional to wring wounded pigeons shot at the annual Family Fest Pigeon Shooting Day. One day, a pigeon taps at Palmer's window. He names the pigeon Nipper, but...

.

Spinelli was born in Norristown

Norristown, Pennsylvania

Norristown is a municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, northwest of the city limits of Philadelphia, on the Schuylkill River. The population was 34,324 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 and currently resides in Wayne, PA

Wayne, Pennsylvania

Wayne is an unincorporated community located on the Main Line, centered in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. While the center of Wayne is in Radnor Township, Wayne extends into both Tredyffrin Township in Chester County and Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County...

. At the age of sixteen, his love of sports inspired him to compose a poem about a recent football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 victory. Later, unbeknownst to him, his father published it in the local newspaper. It was at this time he realized that he would not become a Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 player, and decided to become a writer instead.

During his time at Gettysburg College, Spinelli spent his time writing short stories and was the editor of the college literary magazine.