Maniac had dinner with the Pickwell family for the second time. He sat at the old ping pong table with Mr. and Mrs. Pickwell, their many children, their extended family, and a shoe salesman who was a guest. While there, Maniac "ate and talked and laughed his way through dinner." This happy time of togetherness made him remember the Beale family. It had been almost a year since he lived with the family, but his memories of them were still fond. Maniac thought about "how alike the two families were: friendly, giving, accepting."

The Beale and Pickwell families had many differences, and yet they had much in common. The Pickwell family was very large. They were white and lived on the West End of town. The Beale family was smaller. They were black and lived on the East End of town. Despite these differences, both families welcomed Maniac Magee. They fed him and showed him that they cared. They accepted him without question. They made him feel loved. As Maniac sat eating at the large ping pong table, "he could picture the Beales' brown faces around this dinner table, and the little Pickwell kids' white bodies in the bathtub."

How is the Pickwell family similar to the Beale family in "Maniac Magee"?

Both the Pickwells and the Beales are large, intact family units.  The Pickwells include the parents, ten children, a baby, paternal grandparents and one great-grandparent, while the Beale household is made up of the parents and three children.  In both families, the mothers are very involved with homemaking duties; when Maniac meets Mrs. Pickwell, she has just prepared a meal for her "small nation", and when he meets Mrs. Beale, she is "busy with her usual tools...a yellow plastic bucket and a sponge", and the fathers of both families are strong presences as well.

Because of their large sizes, both families exist in a sort of organized, loving chaos.  Mrs. Pickwell stands outside and blows a whistle at suppertime, at which the Pickwell children come scurrying in from all corners of the neighborhood.  Mrs. Beale, who has two preschoolers, is busy "scrubbing purple crayon off the TV screen" when Maniac first enters the house.

Both the Pickwells and the Beales are spontaneous and generous in opening their homes to those in need.  The Pickwells, who are "always helping out somebody", have "a down-and-out taxi driver whom Mr. Pickwell is helping" staying with them, and they barely notice when Maniac appears at the dinner table with them, indicating that the presence of extra mouths to feed is not unusual.  When Mr. and Mrs. Beale discover that Maniac has no home, they immediately say, "you're staying here" (Chapters 6 and 12).