Author: Jerry SpinelliPublishing information: (Knopf Books for Young Readers, Aug 8, 2000, Young Adult)
Number of Pages: 208 pages
Genre: Modern Realism
Summary of Plot:
This plot centers on a new girl that comes to town. Before she arrived, no one ever tried to stick out of the crowd. They wore the same types of clothes, acted in the norm, etc. Not Stargirl, the new girl. On the first day she came to school people knew she would be different. She had a long ankle length dress on, a large bag with a life-size sunflower on it, a pet rat in her bag, and a ukulele, which she played in the lunch room. She also decorated her desks with a cloth and a fresh daisy (in a vase), sang happy birthday to strangers, and left gifts on each of her classmates’ desk for the different holidays.
While at first she remained obscure and weird to the other students, she later became popular when her enthusiasm gave her a spot on the cheerleading squad. Crowd attendance, minimal before, suddenly skyrocketed. The team started winning, and were undefeated. Her enthusiasm did not stop for her team alone; it spread to cheering on the other teams. Her peers did not like her after she did that. After a few losses, they blamed her for their losing streak. She got kicked off the squad, and was ignored by all but one person. That was Leo. He liked her, and she thought he was cute. As the book progressed, their relationship got bigger.
Many of the student’s did not just have their school teachers, but Archie, an archeologist, as well. They would go to his house on weekends and learn what he taught, for fun. He had a dinosaur head that he would carry around and use in his stories. He was close to Stargirl. She had stayed at his house at one point of her life.
The school had a televised program called the “Hot Seat”. They chose people that they wanted to learn more about to be the guest. Stargirl accepted the request to be on the show. It turned out horribly. At that point in time, people had turned the backs on her. They switched from the typical questioning to making accusations and rude comments. It turned into somewhat of a riot. The faculty supervisor cut the episode. It never was aired.
In the end, even after Stargirl had won a state speech contest, people did not like her. She went to a school dance. Hillari, a stuck up girl, hit her, but Stargirl gave her a kiss on the cheek in return. After she rode off from the dance no one saw her again. A while later Leo found another porcupine tie on his doorstep. This was what Stargirl had done to him at the start of the book, anonymous to him when it happened originally.
My Reaction to the book:
I found this book to be a pretty good representation of a high school. There is at least one person in every school that stands out. Tricks that were used in the book would be used in a high school.
Susan, Stargirl’s real name, was a great example of turning the other cheek. Doing small acts of kindness were another thing that made Stargirl a good model for readers of the book. People can learn a lot from her.
I felt like I was in the action. It was realistic, an applicable to the target age range. I found the end strange. I like more concrete endings. It was an easy book to read because it had simple language a simple plot.
Potential Problems:
This book has insulting comments, hate, and hostility in it. These are not positive traits that children will learn about.
Recommendations:
For those that feel like an odd one out of a group this is a good book because it demonstrates the power that one individual had on a school. Even though she was not well liked much of the time, she still had the courage and desire to do good to those who despitefully used her.
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