Stargirl [Hardcover]

Jerry Spinelli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2000

Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first.

Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"She was homeschooling gone amok." "She was an alien." "Her parents were circus acrobats." These are only a few of the theories concocted to explain Stargirl Caraway, a new 10th grader at Arizona's Mica Area High School who wears pioneer dresses and kimonos to school, strums a ukulele in the cafeteria, laughs when there are no jokes, and dances when there is no music. The whole school, not exactly a "hotbed of nonconformity," is stunned by her, including our 16-year-old narrator Leo Borlock: "She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl."

In time, incredulity gives way to out-and-out adoration as the student body finds itself helpless to resist Stargirl's wide-eyed charm, pure-spirited friendliness, and penchant for celebrating the achievements of others. In the ultimate high school symbol of acceptance, she is even recruited as a cheerleader. Popularity, of course, is a fragile and fleeting state, and bit by bit, Mica sours on their new idol. Why is Stargirl showing up at the funerals of strangers? Worse, why does she cheer for the opposing basketball teams? The growing hostility comes to a head when she is verbally flogged by resentful students on Leo's televised Hot Seat show in an episode that is too terrible to air. While the playful, chin-held-high Stargirl seems impervious to the shunning that ensues, Leo, who is in the throes of first love (and therefore scornfully deemed "Starboy"), is not made of such strong stuff: "I became angry. I resented having to choose. I refused to choose. I imagined my life without her and without them, and I didn't like it either way."

Jerry Spinelli, author of Newbery Medalist Maniac Magee, Newbery Honor Book Wringer, and many other excellent books for teens, elegantly and accurately captures the collective, not-always-pretty emotions of a high school microcosm in which individuality is pitted against conformity. Spinelli's Stargirl is a supernatural teen character--absolutely egoless, altruistic, in touch with life's primitive rhythms, meditative, untouched by popular culture, and supremely self-confident. It is the sensitive Leo whom readers will relate to as he grapples with who she is, who he is, who they are together as Stargirl and Starboy, and indeed, what it means to be a human being on a planet that is rich with wonders. (Ages 10 to 14) --Karin Snelson

From Publishers Weekly

Part fairy godmother, part outcast, part dream-come-true, the star of Spinelli's latest novel possesses many of the mythical qualities as the protagonist of his Maniac Magee. As narrator Leo Borlock reflects on his junior year in a New Mexico high school, Stargirl takes center stage. Even before she appears at Mica High, Spinelli hints at her invisible presence; readers, like Leo, will wonder if Stargirl is real or some kind of mirage in the Sonoran Desert. By describing the girl through the eyes of a teen intermittently repulsed by and in love with her, Spinelli cunningly exposes her elusive qualities. Having been homeschooled, Stargirl appears at Mica High dressed as a hippie holdover and toting a ukulele, which she uses to serenade students on their birthdays; she marks holidays with Halloween candy and Valentine cards for all. As her cheerleading antics draw record crowds to the school's losing football team's games, her popularity skyrockets, yet a subtle foreboding infuses the narrative and readers know it's only a matter of time until she falls from grace. For Leo, caught between his peers and his connection to Stargirl, the essential question boils down to one offered to him by a sage adult friend: "Whose affection do you value more, hers or the others'?" As always respectful of his audience, Spinelli poses searching questions about loyalty to one's friends and oneself and leaves readers to form their own answers. Ages 12-up. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (August 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679886370
• ISBN-13: 978-0679886372
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (953 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Growing up, Jerry Spinelli was really serious about baseball. He played for the Green Sox Little League team in his hometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and dreamed of one day playing for the major leagues, preferably as shortstop for the New York Yankees.

One night during high school, Spinelli watched the football team win an exciting game against one of the best teams in the country. While everyone else rode about town tooting horns in celebration, Spinelli went home and wrote "Goal to Go," a poem about the game's defining moment, a goal-line stand. His father submitted the poem to the Norristown Times-Herald and it was featured in the middle of the sports page a few days later. He then traded in his baseball bat for a pencil, because he knew that he wanted to become a writer.

After graduating from Gettysburg College with an English degree, Spinelli worked full time as a magazine editor. Every day on his lunch hour, he would close his office door and craft novels on yellow magazine copy paper. He wrote four adult novels in 12 years of lunchtime writing, but none of these were accepted for publication. When he submitted a fifth novel about a 13-year-old boy, adult publishers once again rejected his work, but children's publishers embraced it. Spinelli feels that he accidentally became an author of children's books.

Spinelli's hilarious books entertain both children and young adults. Readers see his life in his autobiography Knots in My Yo-Yo String, as well as in his fiction. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved Penn Relays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book, while Maniac Magee is set in a fictional town based on his own hometown.

When asked if he does research for his writing, Spinelli says: "The answer is yes and no. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. Yes, in the sense that the first 15 years of my life turned out to be one big research project. I thought I was simply growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania; looking back now I can see that I was also gathering material that would one day find its way into my books."

On inspiration, the author says: "Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. And from imagination. And from feelings. And from memories. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey."

Spinelli lives with his wife and fellow writer, Eileen, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While they write in separate rooms of the house, the couple edits and celebrates one another's work. Their six children have given Jerry Spinelli a plethora of clever material for his writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stargirl for President!, November 15, 2000

By 

Brett Benner (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Stargirl (Hardcover)

I could only wish I was as brave and as overwhelmingly generous as the magical girl the book is named after. Told from the perspective of sixteen year old Leo, who falls under her charms like the rest of Mica High School, it is a wistful, heartfelt, and bittersweet narrative that ultimately packs a gentle but firm emotional punch.

This book should be required reading for adults young and old for it's ringing endorsement of individualism.It reminds us that like Stargirl it's okay to be different, that sameness is boring, and that we should all, as Will Shakespeare once said,"To thine own self be true."

At just under two hundred pages it can almost be tackled in one sitting. A perfect gift for someone who may not feel that they totally belong, or that their being different is a bad thing, or simply to be gently reminded that acceptance starts from within.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very special, August 17, 2001

By 

sallyann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stargirl (Hardcover)

Originally I borrowed this from the library. Halfway through it I bought my own copy, and one for my niece.

This is a story about a girl called Stargirl. She has been home tutored for most of her life and has no idea of conformity. She is herself, through and through. She wears pioneer type dresses, no make up, meditates, knows peoples birthdays, makes people feel good about themselves.

At the start the majority of the school applauds her individuality and even flatters her when they copy her odd ways. But slowly they see her individuality as a hindrance and begin to turn on her. Leo, the 16 year old narrator of the book finds himself as her boyfriend, and as such is completely alienated from the rest of the school. It dawns on him that he has to choose, Stargirl or his friends and respect.

This is probably one of the best books I have read for an awful long time, and I read a lot of books! I am keeping my copy on my bookshelf for my children to read, to teach them to applaud individuality, not discourage.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good lesson wrapped in a great story, October 20, 2000

By 

S Cook "ninjagirl" (Dallas, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stargirl (Hardcover)

Who couldn't love Stargirl? She is the new girl in school who's a bit different than everyone else. She carries her pet rat to school, brings her ukelele, and wears period clothing her mom sews. But more importantly she is possibly the kindest person ever written about. She celebrates holidays by giving everyone in her homeroom a treat, and leaves greeting cards for people, and sings Happy Birthday to them. At first her popularity soars and she even becomes a cheerleader. Unfortunately the very thing that made her popular turns all the students on her... herself.

One boy, the narrator is more caught up with her than anyone else. He befriends her and the two even date. But soon he can't stand the peer pressure and asks Stargirl to change. I have to admit that was really hard to read because I like the narrator but Stargirl shouldn't have to change! If it weren't for endless positivity some of the book would be too tough to get through.

I really love the ending. I think it ended exactly the way it should. Not the best for everyone but the best for Stargirl. Perhaps everyone in the story learns their lesson about conforming individuals and I think the reader will too.