Star Girl

Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli

An out of the ordinary read! Stargirl arrives at Mica High after being home schooled her whole life. She has changed her name several times when the old one 'wears out'. She dresses like a pioneer. Stargirl decorates her desk with a cloth and flower everyday. She hands out treats to her homeroom each holiday and she sings 'Happy Birthday' to the students during lunch, while strumming her ukulele. Despite not fitting the mold, Stargirl worms her way into the hearts of most of the student body of Mica High.

Leo is your run of the mill eleventh grader. He does what all of the other students at Mica do. The only things out of the ordinary about Leo is that he collects porcupine ties and he started a high school talk show with his friend Kevin, called, 'The Hot Seat'.

Stargirl loves Leo. He is fascinated by her. She shows him what it is like to be different and to just let go of everyone's expectations and do what you enjoy. She loves thinking of others and devises ways to cheer up random people anonymously.

Stargirl's popularity takes a nose dive when the high school basketball team loses a game after their first winning streak in years. The student body turns against her. She was asked to be a cheerleader after her antics make school sports cool again. But once she cheers for the other teams and helps an injured opponent, the students admiration turns sour. Stargirl is shunned. Her shunning spreads to Leo once they become a couple.

Stargirl reverts to her old name, Susan, and tries to conform. She hopes that the other kids will look at her again instead of pretending she doesn't exist. Leo and Kevin put her on 'The Hot Seat'. Things turn bad as the students asking the questions on the show, let their disdain for Stargirl be known.

Once Susan finds she can't return to her former popularity she reverts to Stargirl and all of her wild ways.

The question of whether you can be different from the whole and still accepted, was answered in a startling way. I hate to say that I was uncomfortable with Stargirl.......but I was. I think I was embarrassed for her because she wasn't embarrassed for herself. Even when Leo became close to her and we were able to learn more about her point of view, she still didn't seem real. Actually she seemed like she wasn't living in reality. By the end she broke my heart and I was finally cheering for her silently and wondering why they could like her once and not again. She did have

some good ideas about serving others. Leo made me want to strangle him, probably because he didn't dare to go against the grain.........and I wouldn't have either at that age.

Rating 3.5 I wasn't as enchanted as I wanted to be. It was still a great book that I would recommend to anyone above the age of 9.

Rating G