Stargirl (Readers Circle)
by Jerry Spinelli
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jerry SpinelliEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-11
ISBN: 0440416779
Number of pages: 208
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780440416777
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Stargirl (Readers Circle)
Book Review: Stargirl
Summary: 4 Stars
Have you ever met someone so different that the weirdest person you could think of was 1000 times more normal that them? In the book Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, a girl shows up at Mica Area High School who fits that description perfectly.
When a 10th grader named Stargirl starts going to Mica Area High School (MAHS) in the middle of nowhere of a desert in Arizona nobody knows what to think of her. Most people literally hate her from the start while main character 11th grader Leo is sort of leaning the other way. He starts hanging out with her one day and discovers that even though she is really weird, he likes her a lot. Because of Stargirl's constant joy and happiness she becomes a cheerleader and the school's usually terrible basketball team goes undefeated. Unfortunately, when they start loosing in the finial games of the season everybody blames it on her. Now they hate her more than ever and Leo is noticing that people are starting to ignore him as well because he is friends with her.
The audience for this book is young teens who like stories about friendship and a little romance because it involves many of the problems that teens deal with like fitting in. The audience stays the same throughout the book. The genre is realistic fiction because it isn't a true story but it could happen in real life. I wouldn't say that I have ever read a book like this one. It was a little strange in some parts.
I can relate Stargirl to the book Twilight because nobody knew what to think of Stargirl just like nobody knows what to think about the Cullen family. Also in both books there is a new girl starting a new school in a small town. This book is also different from Twilight in a lot of ways. For example, there are no vampires or other mythical creature in Stargirl just humans and a few animals.
Something that I liked about Stargirl is that everything especially the setting was described extremely well. However, I didn't like how the text was set up because there wasn't very much dialog, it was mainly just Leo's thoughts. I also didn't like that the story got a little confusing at times because it was a very fast moving book and it would say he of she a lot instead of using names so I would sometimes loose track of who was talking. The last thing I didn't like was that in my opinion some of Leo's choices weren't the brightest.
In conclusion, I thought Stargirl was an ok book. If you like strange stories I would definitely recommend it and even if you don't I say you should still give it a try.
Summary of Stargirl (Readers Circle)
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.
"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
Spinelli, Jerry Books
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