She comes into high school, an unknown 10th grader, playing a ukulele, and everyone laughs. That lasts a couple of weeks, and then, suddenly, she is cool, and that lasts a couple of weeks. Now you've read about 50 pages, and the story begins. What is it like to be true to yourself? Is it something you can choose? This is THE book for pre-teens and teens to read about identity and peer pressure. Painting the social scene of an American high school with all its undercurrents and popularity contests, this book offers another approach to being yourself. It's a self that can celebrate others and doesn't have to commit itself to the "crowd" with all its rules and needs. Powerful and fabulous. One of my top five. It has a sequel: Love, Stargirl.
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A celebration of nonconformity; a tense, emotional tale about the fleeting, cruel nature of popularity--and the thrill and inspiration of first love. Ages 12+
Leo Borlock follows the unspoken rule at Mica Area High School: don't stand out--under any circumstances! Then Stargirl arrives at Mica High and everything changes--for Leo and for the entire school. After 15 years of home schooling, Stargirl bursts into tenth grade in an explosion of color and a clatter of ukulele music, enchanting the Mica student body.
But the delicate scales of popularity suddenly shift, and Stargirl is shunned for everything that makes her different. Somewhere in the midst of Stargirl's arrival and rise and fall, normal Leo Borlock has tumbled into love with her.
In a celebration of nonconformity, Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the fleeting, cruel nature of popularity--and the thrill and inspiration of first love. ---from the publisher
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A modern-day classic and New York Times bestseller from Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli.
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.
Don’t miss the sequel, Love, Stargirl, and Jerry Spinelli’s latest novel, The Warden’s Daughter, about another girl who can't help but stand out.---from the publisher
