Star Girl

Stargirl

Jerry Spinelli

©2002

208 Pages

Young Adult

Summary:

Stargirl is a wonderful little novel about learning to accept and understand people for who they are. Leo seemed to have everything he wanted from life. He wasn't the most popular person in school, but he wasn't disliked either. Everything in his school had its place until stargirl arrived on his first day back from summer. Stargirl wasn't like other girls. She wore long, flowing dresses, didn't wear make-up, and carried around a ukulele which he played on a regular basis. She was weird. And so Leo couldn't understand why he couldn't stop thinking about her. Even through the curious things she did, somehow stargirl became the most popular girl in school. Everyone liked her and Leo realized that he did too. However, everything changed when she was made a cheer leader and started cheering for the other team. You see, stargirl doesn't just cheer for one person, she cheers for everyone. She wants to make everyone happy and she wants everyone to succeed. This becomes a problem when the entire school turns against her for the things she says in support of the opponent. Leo finds out what it feels like to be despised when he winds up as Mr. stargirl and is therefore hated by the whole school. Leo understands that the only way to get his old life back is to sever all ties with stargirl. When she stops showing up for school, he begins to wonder if he did the right thing. Years later, he is still not sure.

I didn't really think that I was going to like this book. I had heard that it was a really girly book and that has never really been my thing. I was surprised to learn that the book was actually told from the point of view from a book