2. Close your eyes and picture this… Despite the cold, the front door was wide open, and Maniac could smell the inside before he could see it. The first thing he did see was a yellow, short-haired mongrel looking innocently up at him while taking a leak in the middle of the living room floor. "Clean that up," John ordered Russell. "Clean that up," Russell ordered Piper. Piper just walked on by. After closing the front door, which was surprisingly heavy, Maniac found a stack of newspapers in a corner. He laid some over the puddle to soak in, then gave himself a tour of the downstairs.

3. Maniac had seen some amazing things in his life- time, but nothing as amazing as that house. From the smell of it, he knew this wasn't the first time an animal had relieved itself on the rugless floor. In fact, in another corner he spotted a form of relief that could not be soaked up by newspapers. Cans and bottles lay all over, along with crusts, peelings, cores, scraps, rinds, wrappers, everything you would normally find in a garbage can. And everywhere there were raisins. As he walked through the dining room, something, an old tennis ball, hit him on top of the head and bounced away. He looked up, into the laughing faces of Russell and Piper. The hole in the ceiling was so big they both could have jumped through it at once.

4. He ran a hand along one wall. The peeling paint came off like cornflakes. Nothing could be worse than the living and dining rooms, yet the kitchen was. A jar of peanut butter had crashed to the floor; someone had gotten a running start, jumped into it, and skied a brown, one-footed track to the stove. On the table were what appeared to be the remains of an autopsy performed upon a large bird, possibly a crow. The refrigerator contained two food groups: mustard and beer. The raisins here were even more abundant. He spotted several of them moving. They weren't raisins; they were roaches. Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli

5. “Explode” one of these sentences: 1. The sports car made its way through the parking lot. 2. The cat walked along the edge of the pond. 3. The restaurant was full of messy eaters. 4. Late again! I thought as I crept into the hushed classroom. 5. Traffic was terrible as my mom sped me to school. 6. Doctor Strangebird crept into the silent library. 7. I ate the birthday cake with satisfaction. 8. It was our first date and we went to the movies.