Stargirl (Readers Circle)
by Jerry Spinelli
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Book Reviews of Stargirl (Readers Circle)
Book Review: Review by 8th Grade Students
Summary: 4 Stars
REVIEW #1
Hard to understand and a bit boring, the introduction may make you feel like your wasting your time to try and read it, but the whole story and theme that the author, Jerry Spinelli, has given off is quite enjoyable and a look into different life of a girl. In this book, you will ask many questions and even start to believe that Stargirl is creepy, which she is. This book, however, doesn't actually grab your attention, it more makes you think of what you do and how you act. The book begins with Stargirl, a previously home-schooled girl who dresses unlike the other girls in school and owns a ukulele, attending Mica High School with almost every awkward look on her. Throughout the book, Stargirl is given popularity easily, but at the same time given instant isolation. Leo, the narrator, later starts to like Stargirl, and after they start to go out Leo receives the same treatment as Stargirl gets. Isolation. A person like Leo teaches you that if you really care about someone you won't care what their status is and how your social standing is. All in all, this book is pretty interesting, but again, its not a book that you can just read in an hour sitting still, turning page-after-page. The book teaches you more than giving you something to read for fun. I wouldn't read this book again, but I would recommend it to someone I felt was losing touch with themselves or trying so hard to fit in. Stargirl makes you think about if it is really important to be popular. If you are looking for something to read, you should choose to read this book. Jerry Spinelli is an amazing author, because the plot is still interesting and at the same time reminding you about how you live and think. Honestly, it is not only a pleasurable book, despite the weirdness and creepy behaviors that she has, that teaches you a nice and refreshing lesson. In conclusion, the book, Stargirl is warm and heartfelt book, but ends with a surprise that keeps you wondering.
REVIEW #2
This book was a very interesting book. Stargirl Caraway would do many things different from the other kids at Mica Area High School. She had a rat named Cinnamon, and she wore really long skirts. She also carried around a ukulele every day at lunch and sang happy birthday. She also walked or road her bike everywhere. Everyone thought that she was very weird. She was just being herself. She went from being home school to going to a public school. She had decided that she liked the change because of Leo. She liked moving from home schooling to going to a public school. Dori Dillson was one of the only people who actually talked to Stargirl after she had been kicked off the cheerleading squad. She didn't fit in very well. Leo thought that her parents would be weird too but surprisingly they weren't. Their house, their car, and everything in he house except for Stargirl's room was normal. I thought they were going to be weird to but I was surprised when they weren't. If I had the choice I probably wouldn't have read this book on my own. They also had like a whole chapter about one specific thing and at points it would get boring but in the end it was a good book. I wouldn't say and awesome book it was just ordinarily good. But I read it in school. I ended up liking this book and plan on reading the second book, Love Stargirl. She is a very interesting person. In the book Leo is the main character and he is one of the few people who actually talks to Stargirl.
He eventually starts going out with her. She changes her name whenever she wants to. She wants to become popular and so she becomes Susan, which is the name, her parents gave her. Susan is the girl inside her that is like everybody else and she wants to be like everybody else so that people will like her. I don't think that it was right for her to do that and Leo supported her doing this. She was also a cheerleader for a short time but she was kicked off because she cheered for both teams. Which I think is very mean, because she was just being supportive of both teams. She was a very preppy cheerleader. The Electrons started winning after Stargirl joined the cheerleading squad. Then they started loosing after she was kicked off and I think that was a very big coincidence. The author made this a very interesting book and made it have weird and interesting scenes. The ending was very interesting and a complete surprise. So in general I think that many people would like to read this book.
Book Review: Stargirl: Sink or Swim?
Summary: 4 Stars
Hey, Everyone. This is a review I had to do for my English class, so I hope you like it!
Have you ever thought about changing your birth name? Susan Caraway, the main character in Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, did. Her motto was new mood, new name. First it was Pocket Mouse, then Mudpie, then Hullygully, and then her current name, Stargirl. Stargirl was the oddest creature Mica Area High School students had ever seen. Conformity was the trend there, just like every other seemingly normal high school, and Stargirl was the furthest thing from a conformist. With her ukulele strapped on her back; golden hair resting upon her shoulders; a sunflower bag; and a pioneer-style dress hanging down to her ankles, it was blatant that she wasn't oh-so-fashionable, nor did she care about being so.
Stargirl's rat, Cinnamon, and her ukulele are with her at all times. Impressing people isn't her thing. She knows everything, about everyone. When you get an A on a test, she sings a song. When it's your birthday, she sings a song. She cheers for the other team. People laugh at her, and even question her humanness. But she continues to march to the beat of her own drummer, which most of us wish we had the audacity to do. She does catch the eye of one young man - Leo Borlock. Their friendship is always up and down, and you can never tell how Leo feels completely, which doesn't make most readers very happy. Even though she's odd to everyone, she never fails to be happy. She makes people glow. She is a role model. Before you know it, MAHS students want to be her. But as the story goes, all good things must come to an end. The end of this good thing is so unimaginable, but end it does, nevertheless.
Stargirl shows how a wall can be torn down just as quickly as it was built - if not quicker. It also shows that nonconformity and
originality can go a long way. People can either love you or hate you for it. Conformity can hide such special things in people. As the well-known quote by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich states "Well behaved women rarely make history." You can make history by being bold; you can make history by being yourself. If it wasn't for nonconformists like Stargirl, life would be like eating the same bland sandwich everyday. (And who wants that?!)
Being yourself can really make an impact, and there's no reason to be ashamed about who you are. We all have a special reason for being here, and in Stargirl's case it was to care for people who didn't really feel special. For that reason, I have major respect for Stargirl, and people like her.
I recommend this novel to anyone wanting to find a connection to the real world. Every single person in the world battles with acceptance. Whether you are eight or eighty, to some extent, you want to fit in. I mostly recommend this novel to teenagers such as myself. Personally, I feel like it's hard to break away from the norm. As teenagers, most of us feel like acceptance is the most important thing in the world. In regards to the characters, they are easily related to, as everyone has or will sometime face high school. I also think guys will enjoy this immensely because it is told from a man's point of view. Not many stories like this are told through a man's eyes, and that is what completely reeled me in. Perspectives of men & women differ eminently, and it would have been completely different to have heard this from a woman's point of view. The question that the books makes you ask yourself is: do you have the gusto to be different?
Book Review: Impossible ideals...
Summary: 4 Stars
As a Christian, when I read Stargirl at the age of 16(back in 2001) I thought it was the most awesome book ever - period. Stargirl represented everything I wanted to be; carefree, beautiful, bold, and honest. I was a shy girl who acted tough and confident, but I wanted to be able to be like Stargirl prancing around the school singing happy birthday to people I didn't know, sending cards to random people, and putting daisies on my desk at school. To me Stargirl represented a fearless woman who could do what she wanted without fear of judgement. Now, as I am older I still want that, but I feel differently about how Stargirl acts.
The character of Stargirl is used to contrast against the other students of Mice High who are afraid to be themselves, but go with the flow, and critize anyone who goes against. Stargirl is the catalyst who gets people like Leo to think that maybe he should stop caring about what people think. I do agree that people need to care about what other people think so much when it causes them to judge themselves, and conform to what they percieve as "normal". The character Stargirl is used here to tell children and teenagers that true freedom is found in being who you were created to be, and not who you think you should be, or others think you should be.
As the story progresses we see that Leo is less keen on complying with Stargirl's antics when it conflicts with his reputation; such as her knack for cheering for the other team at basketball games. Later Leo looks back on things and sees how he tried to make Stargirl change, and it ended up making her miserable, and realizes he lost his first love because he kept trying to change her.
There are two things I want to note about "Stargirl". One, although Leo was wrong to try to change Stargirl, it was not a bad thing for her to change. This is because her passions were unbridled, she didn't understand restraint, and yes while she did good to break Mica High out of their shells, she also needed to come to a balance where she herself learned that some conformity is a good thing (Such as conforming to the image of God or being obedient to parents).
Two, I initially loved the idea of Stargirl erasing herself, because I use Christian meditation (focusing on Jesus) as a way to get away from the world. The book gave an impression that she was a Christian, but when I started reading the new book "Love, Stargirl" I realized Spinelli was not in the least talking about a Christian form of meditation, but rather an Eastern form of meditation. I understand this in the second book, but it is important to note that Stargirl calls her practice of erasing herself "Mind Washing", which reminds me a lot of Eastern meditation and New-Age practices that tell us to empty our minds.
I am not saying that Stargirl is a bad book, in fact it is an amazing book. It is still one of my favorites because it does illistrate how we are often expected to fit a certain mold when every person is different and has their own personality. I am just not excited about books that tell our children that non-comformity is good either, but we all have to conform on some level. I am not saying that Spinelli was telling us to live without restraint, but rather that we should enjoy life more. I agree with that, but the message gets mixed up in all the fluff and can be easily misconstrued.
*ENJOY ~Amy
Book Review: Not Very Believable
Summary: 1 Stars
Maybe this story was supposed to be written in this manner (more metaphorically speaking), but I don't know how anyone could literally believe it.
First of all, when Stargirl does actions like dancing in the rain during school hours (class time), especially when students can see that she's doing it (distracting to classes too), I don't see how school officials or authoritative figures would not take any action. Ditching class is usually grounds for at least a detention.
Also, by a lot of her actions, like going off-topic about totally random things (not the normal type of things to go off-topic in at a class), one would think Stargirl is autistic. No, really. See for yourself. (Or, don't... as this book isn't really worth anyone's time unless a small child needs a lesson about individuality and even then, I would find another story to explain it.) Also, it is quite rude to interrupt a teacher and a class which is in session to say ABSOLUTE NONSENSE. It may be "unique," but it is also undeniably stupid and quite obnoxious. There are much better ways to be unique and show one's individuality without bringing a rat to school, ditching class to dance in the rain, talking nonsense (really, nonsense) during class, and more.
If you want to teach a child about individuality, get him or her into hobbies, read stories to them that will inspire them, show them artwork, but really, please don't show them this book. The character shows the kind of individuality, which is... stupid. Normally I dislike calling books (which I usually consider works of art in themselves) stupid, but this one sadly deserves such a criticism.
There are other parts of the book that also... just don't make any sense. The main character Leo makes it clear at the beginning of the book that he is a Junior in High School, and then he speaks of what his classmates started saying about Stargirl in his (get ready for this) GEOMETRY class. Really? No... really?!?! Geometry is a Freshman class, and sometimes a Sophomore class, but a JUNIOR class? Please.
Also, the book tried to make it known that no one but Stargirl has individualism, but again, please. I attended an 18 person high school graduating class for 2 of my years of high school, and a 2000 person school for the other 2 years. Even the 18 person school had individualism. People had different interests, spoke their minds about issues, had intellectual debates, etc. Our bad, for not leaving a teacher in the dust to dance in the rain or not carrying small rodents in our bags, but I would say we had pretty damned good individualism. Religiously, politically, interest-wise, etc. And the 2000 person school. Hell yes! Of course there were cliques, but even within cliques people had different music tastes, and of course there was even more individualism than that. From people in non-cliques, and more. Basically, I did not buy that this book was trying to tell me that everyone at Mica Area High School was supposed to be not individualistic and pretty much, the same human being until... Stargirl arrived.
Of course there are other unrealistic, silly, and well, lame, parts of the book, but I hope what I have written so far in this review has done the job in convincing you to NOT read this book.
If I saved anyone any time in their life, this review was completely, and utterly worth it.
Book Review: For Everyone
Summary: 5 Stars
Almost every teen knows what it's like to feel like an outcast, and most teens also know what it feels like to feel popular for even a short amount of time. Many have had fights with friends and feel rejected by a person they have a crush on. And almost all adolescents struggle to figure out who they are. In Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli writes a touching story about a girl who goes through all these teen experiences, and overcomes a broken spirit and a broken heart. Though occasionally overly dramatic and sometimes unrealistic, Spinelli weaves a tale so compelling that the reader can almost see him or herself in the book.
A girl who calls herself Stargirl Caraway creates quite a buzz on the first day of school at Mica High School. She instantly sets herself apart from the other students by wearing a kimono, acting uniquely, and carrying around a pet rat in a bag with a sunflower on it. Each day, she plays "Happy Birthday" on her ukulele to a different student, and dances around the lunchroom in excitement. Some students begin to speculate that Stargirl is a plot by the school and administration to get students interested in school and to raise student spirit. Soon, they turn against her for being too different and too energetic. Disappointed on the inside, but not showing it on the outside, Stargirl continues her unique behaviors, and stays positive and energetic on the outside. Stargirl and her classmate Leo, who is also criticized by the rest of the school, develop a fast and deep friendship. They go through some tough times, and get into a heated argument. This argument is the last straw for Stargirl; she feels abandoned by the only person in the school who didn't look down at her. After the argument, Stargirl disappears and is replaced with Susan Caraway. Susan is a regular gum-chewing, jeans wearing high school student, who doesn't seem to care about very much. But Susan realizes that trying to blend in will not gain her the friendships and relationships she desires. The students are no nicer to her than they were before she transformed from Stargirl to Susan, and Leo does not ask her to the end of year dance.
In Susan's place, Stargirl arrives at the ball in a bright yellow gown. She leads the school in a bunny-hop dance. The dance ends in catastrophe, and Stargirl moves away. Still, she left her mark on the school, changing the lives of everyone there. Leo hopes everyday for her to return, but he never sees her again.
Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli, is a wonderful and inspiring story about individuality, perseverance, and friendship. Any reader, from teens to adults can watch, experience, and empathize with Stairgirl's journey through the social scene. Any reader can relate to her feelings about love, friends, popularity, and individualism. And though Stargirl experiences the best and worst that a social scene has to offer, Spinelli doesn't leave the reader disappointed at the end. Stargirl sends Leo a reminder of their friendship, and all is forgiven. It is a must-read for anyone, teen or otherwise, looking for a place to belong or trying to discover him or herself.
Star Girl, by Jerry Spinelli. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2003.
208 pages
Fiction (realistic)
Reading Level: 6