I recommend this book to everyone, though, especially middle schoolers who feel the I read this in middle school as required reading and absolutely LOVED it, but coming back to it years later, I couldn't help but notice some of its flaws. Although, with a book this short, exaggerated characters are pretty much a necessity. I got very attached to the story despite it being less than 200 pages and I do love the moral that Spinelli is trying to get across, but I was not a big fan of the characters. I read this in middle school as required reading and absolutely LOVED it, but coming back to it years later, I couldn't help but notice some of its flaws. You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print. Spinelli creates a compelling, utterly new narrative here (with a charmingly memorable heroine). He captures Leo's fascination with Stargirl as well as his equivocation as he is forced to choose between Stargirl and "the crowd." Spinelli's writing throughout the story is perfect. Technically speaking I love everything about this book: the characters, the story, the cover art. As the school moves from fascination to adoration and, finally, to disdain Leo finds himself in an impossible position: forced to choose between the girl he loves and his entire lifestyle. Unfortunately, high school students don't always believe in (or appreciate) magic like Stargirl's. In the story, Leo soon realizes that Stargirl might be someone he could love. The kind of magic where you still believe things can be wondrous. She represents the kind of magic more people need in their lives: to appreciate the little things, to dare to be different, to be kind to strangers. In our minds we tried to pin her to corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew."Īfter finishing this book and recently reading Love, Stargirl (Spinelli's newly released sequel), I have my own explanation: Stargirl is magical. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. Formerly home-schooled, Stargirl is a sophomore like no one Leo (or any of the other Mica students) has ever met before: On the first day the name on everyone's lips is Stargirl. The story continues when Leo is a junior in high school. Until his fourteenth birthday when an unknown someone presented Leo with his second tie, someone who was watching from the sidelines. For two years, Leo's collection stood at one tie. Around the time of his move, Leo decided to start collecting porcupine neckties-no easy task, especially in Mica.
The story starts with Leo Borlock, who moved to Mica, Arizona at the age of twelve. I'll say it again: Stargirl is a classic. Classics are the books you want to immerse yourself in: the books you wish you could live in with the characters that you wish were your friends.
It needs to be a book that you enjoy more every time you read it or talk about it. A classic also needs to have memorable writing and characters. This designation raises the question: What makes a book (any book) a classic? For me it means a book that is timeless something you can read years and years after it was written without the book losing its vibrancy. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli is a young adult classic (maybe even a children's classic but that's really a cataloguing issue that I am ill-equipped to discuss).
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