Is it possible for Maniac to have another family in Maniac Magee?

Maniac realizes his true family is the Beales.

When Maniac Magee’s parents died, he was left to relatives that he couldn’t stand.  He ran away, and it wasn’t until he met Amanda Beale that he found a new family.  He felt welcomed to her family by the Beales, but the others in the neighborhood did not like a white boy being with a black family, so he decided to leave.

Maniac didn't answer. Amanda didn't...

Maniac realizes his true family is the Beales.

When Maniac Magee’s parents died, he was left to relatives that he couldn’t stand.  He ran away, and it wasn’t until he met Amanda Beale that he found a new family.  He felt welcomed to her family by the Beales, but the others in the neighborhood did not like a white boy being with a black family, so he decided to leave.

Maniac didn't answer. Amanda didn't understand that most of the hurt he felt was not for himself but for her and the rest of the family. She stomped her foot. "You gotta stay?" (Ch. 18)

When Amanda’s book is targeted and her house grafittied, Maniac does not want any more harm to come to the Beales because of him.  Amanda does not want him to go.  She thinks he will starve.  Maniac leaves anyway, to protect them.  He feels he can take care of himself.

Maniac Magee goes to the zoo, where an old man finds him sleeping in the buffalo pen.  When he asks him where he lives and Maniac tells him, he checks to make sure Maniac actually is white.  

"Well, I did live on Sycamore Street. Seven twenty- eight. "

"Did?"

"I guess I don't anymore."

The old man stared. "You said Sycamore?"

"Yep."

"Ain't that the East End?"

"Yep." (Ch. 22)

Although he is a little baffled by the white kid living on the East End, the old man lets it go.  Grayson takes Maniac in, and for a short time he has a family again.  Unfortunately, Grayson dies and leaves Maniac alone.  His only hope for a real family is to go back to the Beales. 

He decides that it does not matter if they are black and he is white.  They are the people who took him in when he had no one.  He considers them family.  Maniac returns to the Beales, and there he remains.