|  | |
 | Amazon.com
Price: $8.05
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
| | | | |
| |  | | Customers who bought this also bought:
| | | | | | Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
"She was homeschooling gone amok." "She was an alien." "Her parents were circus acrobats." These are only a few of the theories concocted to explain Stargirl Caraway, a new 10th grader at Arizona's Mica Area High School who wears pioneer dresses and kimonos to school, strums a ukulele in the cafeteria, laughs when there are no jokes, and dances when there is no music. The whole school, not exactly a "hotbed of nonconformity," is stunned by her, including our 16-year-old narrator Leo Borlock: "She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl." In time, incredulity gives way to out-and-out adoration as the student body finds itself helpless to resist Stargirl's wide-eyed charm, pure-spirited friendliness, and penchant for celebrating the achievements of others. In the ultimate high school symbol of acceptance, she is even recruited as a cheerleader. Popularity, of course, is a fragile and fleeting state, and bit by bit, Mica sours on their new idol. Why is Stargirl showing up at the funerals of strangers? Worse, why does she cheer for the opposing basketball teams? The growing hostility comes to a head when she is verbally flogged by resentful students on Leo's televised Hot Seat show in an episode that is too terrible to air. While the playful, chin-held-high Stargirl seems impervious to the shunning that ensues, Leo, who is in the throes of first love (and therefore scornfully deemed "Starboy"), is not made of such strong stuff: "I became angry. I resented having to choose. I refused to choose. I imagined my life without her and without them, and I didn't like it either way." Jerry Spinelli, author of Newbery Medalist Maniac Magee, Newbery Honor Book Wringer, and many other excellent books for teens, elegantly and accurately captures the collective, not-always-pretty emotions of a high school microcosm in which individuality is pitted against conformity. Spinelli's Stargirl is a supernatural teen character--absolutely egoless, altruistic, in touch with life's primitive rhythms, meditative, untouched by popular culture, and supremely self-confident. It is the sensitive Leo whom readers will relate to as he grapples with who she is, who he is, who they are together as Stargirl and Starboy, and indeed, what it means to be a human being on a planet that is rich with wonders. (Ages 10 to 14) --Karin Snelson Book Description
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. Download Description
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever. | | | | Product Details
- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; edition (May 14, 2023)
- ISBN: 037582233X
- Average Customer Review:
 Based on 604 reviews. - Amazon.com Sales Rank: 2700
| | | | Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 All ages should give this a try, Aug 1, 2023
I found this book in the young adults section, and don't know why I decided to read it - I am 49. Great, great book; are kids required to read this in school? As we older types know, so much of what is said and thought in this book is true. Jerry Spinelli - what a writer. I'm heading back to the bookstore for more of his work. Perhaps the people who don't care for this book haven't had the life experiences yet to see its perspective.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Good and a Little Boring Together, Jul 23, 2023
A new girl named Stargirl comes in and is not like anyone else. She lives by her own rules, while the others look up to big airheads like Wayne Parr. Doesn't that annoy you?
Leo wants to change Stargirl into one of them. Will his attempt work or fail? You'll never know unless you read the book.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Stargirl is a beautiful book, recommended for any reader., Jul 20, 2023
"We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew."
In Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl the teens at Mica Area High School have never seen anything like her before. In a high school known for it's conformity, for it's lack of spirit, Stargirl stands out. She walks around singing happy birthday to her fellow classmates on her ukulele. She carries around her pet rat, Cinnamon, with her everywhere she goes. Her presence is like a touch of magic too the student body at MAHS. Soon, everyone loves Stargirl. She's still a mystery, but she allows everyone else to care about something and to express the non-conformist within. But she's not doing it because it's something fun and new. Stargirl does it because it is who she is. Soon cheering for the other team at the basketball games, going to a funeral for someone she never met, and a million other tiny differences force Stargirl outside of the high school social scene. She becomes a pariah. And Leo starts to fall in love.
Spinelli has crafted a tale of non-conformity, and the harsh price people pay on either side of the fence, with a deft and magical touch. The characters are grounded in reality, but you can feel Stargirl pulling at the tethers, and she becomes just as magical and thought-provoking to the reader as she is to Leo and the other teens at MAHS. At points, Stargirl threatens to become as unreal and ungrounded as she first appears, but in the end, becomes a real person. A person who is trying to be true to her own inner vision, but still desperately wants to be liked, and even loved, by all. Spinelli urges the reader to feel for Stargirl, but also feel for Leo, who wants to love this new girl, but is caught up in what other people think of him. What do you choose? Is the price of being true to your self worth it? What happens when you choose, and what happens if you want to change that choice?
Besides the characters, the descriptions of Mica's landscape - both physical and mental -are gorgeous. The flat, bare desert comes to life before our eyes and so does MAHS - which is its own kind of desert. Spinelli has created a magical world that bears reading again and again. One that will continue to make you think about these questions, no matter what your age, and who you are.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Stargirl, Jul 15, 2023
This book was okay. It is about a boy and his weird obsessions for porcupine ties. He goes to a school were he meets a girl that is very weird. She dresses and acts different then the girls at the school. Leo falls in love with her and she falls in love with him. She tells him every thing about her. Every thing is going fine until they are seen together at school and nobody talks to either of them. He can't take not being talked to anymore. Read the book and find out what he will do and if there relationship will last.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Stargirl, Jul 15, 2023
Stargirl isn't that great of a book but it is pretty good. Stargirl is about a boy named Leo who has falln' in love with a very odd girl at his school. There is only one bad thing about that though, no one can know he likes her or else his popularity will go out the window and then he will be none as a loser for likeing a loser. There is only one person that knows about this and when the news spills Leo got a huge problem!
| | | | Listmania!
| | | | | Look for similar items by category in Books
|
|
Cart | 
