Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

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Daring to Be Different

In a moving and highly engaging tale about the vagaries of adolescent peer pressure, Newbery Medal winner Jerry Spinelli tells the story of Stargirl, a high school student who is startlingly different from everyone else. The need to conform -- and unabashed curiosity about those who don't -- are at the heart of this touching tale, which aptly demonstrates the peaks and pitfalls of popularity.

Sixteen-year-old high school student Leo Borlock knows how to fit in at Mica High School. He plays the game like everyone else but is more enthralled than most when a new girl comes to school. Stargirl Caraway is her name, or at least the name she is using for now. And after 15 years of homeschooling, she is decidedly different from even the oddest high school students at Mica High. First there's her unusual name, one in a long line of odd names that she has chosen to go by, ignoring her given name of Susan. Then there's the way she looks, shunning makeup and wearing long granny dresses. But all of that is small potatoes when compared to her behavior, which is as weird and bizarre as any of the students at Mica High have ever seen.

Stargirl carries a pet rat around with her and lets it sit on her shoulder whenever she serenades her fellow students with her ukulele. She leaves cards and small gifts on students' desks and in neighborhood doorways. She somehow knows the birthdays of everyone at the school and makes a point of singing "Happy Birthday" to them in the lunchroom. She often laughs when there is no joke and dances when there is no music. She is outspoken and friendly, yet has no friends of her own. And during basketball season, when asked to join the cheerleading squad, she cheers for every basket made, regardless of which team made the score.

There's no doubt about it, Stargirl marches to the beat of an all together different drummer. At first, the other students at Mica High are suspicious of her and think she might be a plant, someone placed in the school as a spy or as part of some bizarre psychology experiment. But Stargirl's whimsical ways and optimistic spirit eventually prove to be irresistible and before long, paranoia gives way to utter fascination. And the most fascinated of all is Leo, who is falling head over heels in love with this quirky girl.

The tide turns swiftly, however, and just as Leo and Stargirl are becoming an item, the student body suddenly decides Stargirl is a freak and a menace. She is shunned by nearly everyone as curiosity turns to disgust. While Stargirl seems blissfully unaware of this shift, Leo sees it, hates it, and starts pressuring Stargirl to try to conform. Solely to please Leo she does so, dressing like everyone else, behaving like everyone else, and even taking back her given name. But in the process of trying to make everyone like her, she loses the very magic and mystery that Leo has come to love in the first place. What's more, despite the changes, she is still shunned. In the end, Stargirl goes back to her old ways and her individuality will prove to be a key turning point in the lives of many, especially Leo's.

Spinelli has crafted a tale as magically appealing and fascinatingly offbeat as is its title character. He aptly captures the poignant excitement of young love, the bitter agonies of peer rejection, and the incredible cruelties teenagers all too often inflict on one another. Amid it all is this wondrous generosity of spirit that is Stargirl, a character who proves to be both enthralling and inspirational. Her story is a celebratory, albeit cautionary, tale about being openly accepting of others while remaining true to oneself.

—Beth Amos

From the Publisher

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.

From the Hardcover edition.

Publishers Weekly

Part fairy godmother, part outcast, part dream-come-true, the star of Spinelli's novel shares many of the mythical qualities as the protagonist of his Maniac Magee. Spinelli poses searching questions about loyalty to one's friends and oneself and leaves readers to form their own answers, said PW in our Best Books citation. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature

In Spinelli's newest novel, Stargirl, the character matches standards he has previously set. Stargirl is the main character of the novel. And that is her real name...at least temporarily, for she is given to changing her name to match her current philosophical and personality bent. When the viewpoint character, Leo Borlock, sees her for the first time he notices her huge eyes that look like deer's eyes caught in headlights. And this is an appropriate image when Stargirl enters a public high school that is not exactly a hotbed of nonconformity. It is not just appearance that makes her so different¾Stargirl embodies the random-acts-of-kindness approach to life and can not understand the us/them divisions so crucial to high school life. Most of the school turns against Stargirl, who becomes a cheerleader and applauds both teams. This special brand of cheering first brought the team success, but when they fail, she is the obvious scapegoat. Leo, the boy who tells the story, falls in love with Stargirl despite trying to resist. He is swept into a painful conflict. Should he let himself be who he really is and love her, or continue his comfortable, conformist existence? Stargirl, who loves him back, tries to conform but the results are disastrous. Most of Spinelli's books have an underlying theme of conformity. In Stargirl the theme becomes the plot and its effects are devastating. When Stargirl is driven out of town by the cruelties of conformity, Leo is left alone and lonely. The last chapter shows him grown, living by himself, citing the changes in the high school ("Today's Electron marching band is probably the only one in Arizona with a ukulele") and living each day remembering Stargirland wondering if he will ever have another chance. Reviewer: Susie Wilde

VOYA

Stargirl is new at Mica High, and she is nothing like anyone else. She wears pioneer dresses, sings Happy Birthday to students in the lunchroom while strumming a ukulele, and carries her pet rat around school. At first everyone whispers and stares, but for Leo, the intrigue is already turning into attraction. Then suddenly Stargirl becomes the most popular person in schoolshe is different, entertainingbut her popularity does not last long. Due to a combination of events, students begin to turn against her, ignore her, and ridicule her. Because Leo is already in love, they soon spend all of their time together, disregarding the shunning they eXperience. Yet Leo is not completely oblivious to being ignored, and it finally gets to him. He convinces Stargirl to change, to dress and act like everybody else. When she does not regain her popularity, Leo feels he must make a difficult choice. At the end of the book, fifteen years later, he is still coming to terms with that year. Spinelli has created an astute and sensitive narrator who first observes and then eXperiences the perils of nonconformity. The high school eXperience is real in this bookthe lunchroom, school TV studio, football games, and speech contests. Although there probably are not too many Stargirls out there quite like this one, there are plenty who will understand what happened at Mica High and why. There are both light moments and poetic, emotionally mature observations in Stargirl. With the book's high school setting and situations, this entertaining and thoughtprovoking story will appeal to and be enjoyed by junior high and high school readers. PLB VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broadgeneral YA appeal; Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Julie Wilde

Alan Review

From the day that Stargirl, a previously homeschooled sophomore, arrives at Mica High School, she is noticed for her eccentricities: the way she dresses; her overt friendliness and spontaneity; the fact that she plays her ukulele and sings loudly in the school cafeteria; and her genuine lack of concern for what others think of her. At first the school is stunned and doesn't know what to make of her. Then she sparks a school-spirit revolution at a football game, and instantly everyone wants to be her friend. But just as suddenly, the school turns on her and shuns her because she doesn't want to play by the rules of normal school life — namely, uniform conformity and spiteful competition. Narrated by Leo, a boy who falls for Stargirl, we listen intently as Leo desperately tries to make her acceptable to others by pleading with her to be someone she is not. Will Stargirl change? Or will she remain the same, charming rebel? This is a delightful, sometimes painful, but always provocative story of first love and teenage popularity. Another well-written work by Spinelli that will particularly appeal to young people and their eagerness to discuss today's high school culture. Genre: Individuality/Popularity 2000, Alfred A. Knopf, 186 pp., $15.96. Ages 10 up. Reviewer: Diana Mitchell; Williamston, Michigan

The Five Owls

In the past year, people from my past have started coming into my present. Some are old high school classmates, people I generally avoided because I was too unsure of myself to risk being changed by them. Looking back, I realize how much I gave up without realizing it and am grateful to have another chance to connect with them. In Jerry Spinelli's beautifully crafted novel Stargirl, narrator Leo Borlock knows someone special has entered his life, and he takes the chance to get to know her. Even though the risk ends up being too great to bear, her influence changes him for the rest of his life. On the first day of school, Stargirl Caraway waltzed into the tenth grade at Mica High, and the world shifted. She behaves like no one else. From serenading classmates with a ukulele on their birthdays to doing something nice for someone each day to dancing in the rain and carrying a pet rat in her huge, flower-painted school bag, Stargirl is a being unto herself. And no one can figure her out. Whispers of "She was homeschooling gone amok," "She was sniffing fumes," and "She was an alien" fly around the halls like wind over the desert sand that surrounds the dull little high school of Mica, Arizona. Leo knows Stargirl is genuine. Like the others, he is drawn to her every move. He watches her with awe, bafflement, and a little fear. Not knowing what to do with this strange, starry being, the student body at first reveres her. Students begin to imitate her. They dance in the rain. They say hello to the formerly unnoticed person in the hallway, and they feel each other's pain if someone gets hurt. When Stargirl becomes a cheerleader and cheers for everyone and everything, so do they. Stargirl'sthirst-quenching spirit unites everyone and awakens individualism. Enjoying the wakeup, and falling in love with Stargirl, Leo believes she is a miracle. He shares his excitement with Archie Brubaker, a retired paleontologist who teaches an informal Saturday morning school at his house of bones. As the philosopher of the novel, Archie muses to Leo, "The trouble with miracles is, they don't last long." True to Archie's prediction, the most popular girl in school suddenly becomes shunned and scorned after the Mica basketball team starts losing every game. The easy, light-hearted games where Stargirl cheered for the other team, too, turn ugly as the desire to win drains the fun—and the love—from the experience. Stargirl's outflowing of caring is seen as traitorous, and she's blamed for the team's inevitable losses. From then on, Leo and Stargirl struggle in the primordial soup of teenage angst—where does their loyalty go? How can they remain true to themselves and each other? Ultimately, Leo sacrifices his relationship with Stargirl, and Stargirl leaves Mica. But her imprint remains, as real as the animals whose bones now rest in Archie's home. Fossils play a subtle but defining role in Spinelli's novel. Through Archie and his love of the earth's ancient cast of creatures, Spinelli comments on the fossilized consciousness of today's people. Archie tells Leo that Stargirl is "us more than we are us. She is, I think, who we really are. Or were." Archie believes Stargirl is closer to humanity's beginnings, and more in touch with it. Without her influence, the rest of us endanger ourselves to extinction during our own lifetime. Spinelli's tale is spare, yet resonant. More spiritual than his other award-winning books, Stargirl began as an idea 34 years ago. It is a mystical, open space he creates, filled with life and love and the beauty of nothingness. Stargirl is an enchanting character. Loosely based on Spinelli's wife, Eileen, she fully celebrates and honors each moment she lives. She loves all creatures and is wise in ways beyond her years. For all her saint-like qualities, though, Stargirl is a believable character. Her lack of ego and her very name allow the reader to believe that she is from another world, and that very possibility encourages us to bask in her blessings and emulate her goodness. It is frustrating to witness the studen body come alive and connect with Stargirl's freeness, only to try to crush her. Yet she leaves behind more than memories in Leo's mind: years after her departure from Mica, a ukulele is a part of the school marching band. A group called the Sunflowers does nice things for people each day, and a small group of basketball fans always cheer the opposing team. As an adult, Leo regrets letting go of Stargirl and wonders if he'll ever get another chance, but he does not despair. He has changed in ways that keep the best parts of her alive within him. Perhaps this is Spinelli's way of encouraging us to take a chance on ourselves and others—that people like Stargirl can help us honor our beginnings and lead us from our past into our future. Reviewer: Holly H. Coughlin — The Five Owls, November/December 2000 (Vol. 15 No. 2)

KLIATT

"Mica Area High School was not exactly a hotbed of nonconformity," an 11th-grader named Leo wryly points out: "If we happened to somehow distinguish ourselves, we quickly snapped back into place like rubber bands." So when an outrageously dressed new 10th grade student who calls herself Stargirl arrives at Mica, she creates quite a stir. Stargirl serenades people on their birthdays with her ukulele, and brings her pet rat to school in her bag. She practices random acts of kindness, and meditates out in the beautiful Sonoran desert. She's goofy, bizarre, entertaining—and endearing. Her amusing antics at a football game gain her an invitation to be a cheerleader, and her performance outshines that of the team. For a brief period, everyone wants to be like Stargirl, and everyone wants to be her friend. But when basketball season comes around and she starts to cheer the opposing team's baskets as well ("I root for everybody!," she says in all sincerity), the school turns against her—just as Leo realizes that he's in love with her. He wishes that she would conform a little, though, and for his sake she tries. When he realizes that they are both being shunned by everyone in the school anyway, he draws back and the relationship ends. Stargirl vanishes, and Leo is left with his regrets. This parable about conformity and individuality has the narrative drive as well as the clear understanding of the emotional world of teenagers that distinguish Spinelli's other popular books, like There's a Girl in My Hammerlock and the Newbery Award-winning Maniac Magee. Stargirl's free spirit and her kind heart leave behind a legacy at the school, after all, and her story may prompt readers togive some thought to tolerance and the price of popularity. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick; July 2000 (Vol. 34 No. 4)

School Library Journal

Jerry Spinelli's novel, set in small-town Mica, Arizona, is a tender and poignant tale of adolescent relationships. The dynamics between the central characters, Stargirl and Leo, against the backdrop of petty, but entrenched cliques, gives a small window into the painful growth of teenagers and preteens. While the story is compelling, the writing styles don't translate easily to the audio format. Most of the text is narrative, as seen through the eyes of an older Leo, looking back nostalgically on his time spent with Stargirl. Juxtaposed among these memories are "real time" vignettes with dialogue between the assortment of characters. This interplay of time sequences with writing styles demands much of readers/listeners. There are scenes where text is preferable, such as the "Hot Seat" session where Stargirl is pantomiming behind Leo's back. Although narrator John Ritter does an admirable job, it lacks the vitality that Stargirl brings to the story, and the tenderness of Leo's memory. During the dialogues, the voices are not distinctive enough to bring the sense of urgency that is felt while reading the story; it is difficult to sense Hilary's loathing of Stargirl and all she stands for, or Leo's angst as he is torn between "fitting in" and allegiance to Stargirl. His best readings are the dialogues and descriptive passages that engage humor, especially the cheerleading episode as Stargirl spells out "Howdy." The narratives lack a musical vocal quality, and the intonations are predictable. Given that Ritter has strong ability with strictly vocal performances such as the voice for Clifford in Clifford the Big Red Dog (PBS) and other audio works, this could be a story that is better in its print format.-Tina Hudak, St. Bernard's School, Riverdale, MD Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

New York Times Book Review - Betsy Groban

Jerry Spinelli, an author already much acclaimed (his Maniac Magee won the Newbery Medal in 1991), has produced a poetic allegorical tale about the magnificence and rarity of true nonconformity, handsomely bound by his publisher into an unusually pretty little 186-page book.

Kirkus Reviews

Newbery-winning Spinelli spins a magical and heartbreaking tale from the stuff of high school. Eleventh-grader Leo Borlock cannot quite believe the new student who calls herself Stargirl. Formerly home-schooled, Stargirl comes to their Arizona high school with a pet rat and a ukulele, wild clothes and amazing habits. She sings "Happy Birthday" to classmates in the lunchroom, props a small glass vase with a daisy on her desk each class, and reenergizes the cheerleading squad with her boundless enthusiasm. But Stargirl even cheers for the opposing team. She's so threatening to the regular ways of her fellows that she's shunned. No one will touch her or speak to her—or applaud her success when she wins a state speech tournament. Leo's in love with her, but finds that if he's with her, he's shunned, too. She loves him enough to try to fit in, but when that fails spectacularly, she illuminates the spring school dance like a Roman candle and disappears. The desert—old bones, flowering cactus, scented silence—is a living presence here. So is the demon of conformity, a teen monster of what's normal, a demon no less hideous because it's so well internalized in us all. Leo chooses normalcy over star stuff, but looking back as an adult he finds Stargirl's presence in a hundred different ways in his own and in his former classmates' lives. Once again Spinelli takes his readers on a journey where choices between the self and the group must be made, and he is wise enough to show how hard they are, even when sweet.

Product Details

• Reading Group Guide
• Forewords & Introductions
• Read an Excerpt

Reading Group Guide

1. As the saying goes, "love is blind." How is this truly the case with Leo and Stargirl? Looking back, how can you tell that Leo was falling for her? And does he stay in love with her, even after she moves away?

2. Professor Archie Brubaker is the voice of reason throughout the novel. Archie has many thoughtful insights into the personality of Stargirl, and at one point says about her: "You'll know her more by your questions than by her answers. Keep looking at her long enough. One day you might see someone you know." Now that you've finished the novel, what do you think Archie means by this statement?

3. While Stargirl is a guest on "Hot Seat, " Kevin asks her why she changed her name. Do you accept her reason why she did this? How is "Stargirl" an ideal name for her? Think about the possibility of changing your name several times. Do you think your name is an integral part of who you are, or can you imagine yourself with another one?

4. In the beginning, Hillari Kimble seems to be the only person who openly dislikes Stargirl. But then others begin to feel the same way as Hillari. Do you think that groups of people need a leader, like Hillari Kimble, to turn opinions against another person?

5. Do you, as a reader, like Stargirl? If you were a student at Mica High, would you reach out to her like Dori Dilson, or reject her like Hillari Kimble? Do you think the students of Mica High are ultimately too harsh on Stargirl?

6. Popularity, fitting in, and "sameness" are all key themes in Stargirl. Find places in the novel that reinforce these themes and discuss. Do you think Stargirl ever wanted to be popular? How might she define popularity?

7. AfterStargirl changes back to "Susan, " Leo says "she looked magnificently, wonderfully, gloriously ordinary. She looked just like a hundred other girls at Mica High--I had never been so happy and proud in my whole life." How did you feel when you read this part of the novel?

8. Author Jerry Spinelli plays two major events in the novel off of each other: the basketball championships and the oratorical contest. After Stargirl wins the oratorical contest, Leo says that "the cheering is as wild as that of the crowd at a championship basketball game." Stargirl is the focus at both events but in very different ways. How is she rejected at one and accepted at the other? And how does this acceptance ultimately lead to rejection?

9. The Ocotillo Ball at the end of the novel represents a turning point. Do you think Stargirl made a deliberate attempt to say good-bye at the ball? What do you make of the students' behavior at the ball, and what does this tell you about the student body of Mica High as a whole?

10. Archie says about Stargirl, "Star people are rare. You'll be lucky to meet another." Do you think Leo was grown-up enough for his relationship with Stargirl? How about the students of Mica High? Will Leo ever figure Stargirl out?

11. What is the irony at the end of Stargirl? Is Stargirl popular after all? What happens to the "popular" kids in the story-do they stay popular?

Forewords & Introductions

Read an Excerpt