BC Consensus: Stargirl

Would you like to crème de la crème from our book club dicussions this month? You are in luck! In August, we read Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl. Here are some of the comments our members made about the book:

“I think a name can be an integral part of us. So many times, I don't particularly like a name, but then once I come to love the person, that name seems precious to me too. It's no longer a stand-alone word that can be assessed objectively. It represents all the things about the person you love and is part of who they are. Having said that, I think there might be reasons to change a name and Stargirl's is as good as any.”

“I like so many things about Stargirl, aka Susan. She doesn't hide any part of herself -- she shines for all the world to see. Also, she genuinely cares about other people, not because she's a saint, but because she likes people and wants to make a difference. Sometimes I thought she acted a little too zany and wondered if anyone in high school would really act that way. Stargirl is refreshing in her outlook on life and classmates. Too many people get caught up in labels, stereotypes, or prejudices that prevent them from reaching out to others. I also admired her ability to not take anything too seriously.”

+/-

“I don't know if I can say that I liked Stargirl or not. For starters, I listened to the audio book read by John Ritter. His reading was NOT a positive contribution to the book for me. I wasn't very drawn to either Stargirl or the normal students. I appreciated the point that she was different in her own way, but the specifics of that didn't draw me in. Some of them did, I guess. I liked how she could see the world from her own point of view and the things she did for other people. She didn't seem like a teenager to me--all that self-possession and awareness seemed false in a character her age. All of those unbelievable premises made it hard for me to trust in the believability of the plot or the truth of the lessons and conclusions being drawn by the author.”

“The book made me think about high school and how we were all trying to survive. I have had a lot of experience teaching teenage girls and you can see how desperately they each want to be accepted. It's funny how a few control the lives of so many. I liked that Stargirl did her own thing. Yes, some of it made me uncomfortable, but that's because as a high school girl I can remember wanting to be counted among the cool kids. At that age we just don't see our own uniqueness or the uniqueness of others. Stargirl made me happy. I liked that she cared so much about other people. I also read Love, Stargirl and highly recommend it if you are curious to know the rest of the story.”

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Genre: Young Adult
Publisher, Year: Knopf, 2000
Other Works: Love, Stargirl, Maniac Magee
Rating: A or Great Read
Premise: A sort of sweet, loopy girl is new at school. Her odd ways draw a lot of attention, and not all of it positive. A frank look at high school politics and the power of popularity.

In the opening chapters of the book, we meet the title's namesake, Stargirl. And from the start, we know there's something strange about her. Some might say, we know there's something wrong with her. But, this book just might make you rethink what's wrong and what's right, what's normal and what's strange.

She dresses like a hippie one day, then wears a kimino the next. She sings in the cafeteria with her ukelele, her pet rat, Cinnamon, peeking out of her shoulder bag. At first, the other teens are enthralled with her, fascinated by her "originality." But that can't last forever. And when they turn on her, we all are surprised by what transpires.

Spinelli takes on so many difficult themes with this book, including self identity, self esteem, empathy, and the capricious nature of human beings. If you think about it, high school is a fantastic model of the world to learn all of these things. I remember thinking that once I got out of the high school “drama”, as it's been called, real life in the real world with grown-up people would be different. I don’t even think I need to state the obvious that high school is simply a microcosm for the “real world.” +/-

Stargirl tried to defy all those preconceived notions of what’s normal or proper. And, I have to admit, I think I would have found her a little bit offensive at times and a lot odd. At one point, Stargirl shows up at a funeral of a person she’s never really talked to with a family she’s never really befriended, and it made me consider how I would feel if she showed up with her big sunflower bag and pioneer dress at my own father’s wake, even though she’s completely empathetic and not there to make light of the situation. I can’t say for sure what I’d do. I would be confused, that’s for sure. But maybe confusing others was part of the whole purpose. She makes us step back and think about our social conventions and, not only what they mean to us, but why they have meaning. Why do we want to exclude or hurt others? Why can’t we be accepting of taking part in each others’ lives as a community? They are intriguing questions.

Stargirl finds a friend, and eventually a love interest, in Leo, a boy in her grade. He is fascinated by Stargirl, just like the other kids, but for some reason, he is drawn to her more than the others, and he can't put his finger on it. He is torn between his need to be accepted and his attration to Stargirl. In a fit of frustration, he accuses Stargirl of being a saint. It’s interesting that in our minds, as a society, you have to be a saint in order to be selfless. When you boil it down, that’s really what Stargirl is about, setting aside her rather quirky personality, she really just likes people. She likes people more than anything. She just wants to learn about them, and be part of their lives. She wants to celebrate with them when they are happy and cry with them when they are sad. Why should you need to be a saint to do that?

BC Discussion ?s: Stargirl

For the month of August, we read Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl. The following are the discussion questions we used:

1. "You'll know her more by your questions than by her answers. Keep looking at her long enough. One day you might see someone you know." Now that you've finished the novel, what do you think Archie means by this statement?

2. Do you accept Stargirl’s reason to change her name? Do you think your name is an integral part of who you are, or can you imagine yourself with another one?

3. Do you, as a reader, like Stargirl? Would you reach out to her or her?

4. Popularity, fitting in, and "sameness" are all key themes. Do you think Stargirl ever wanted to be popular? How might she define popularity? +/-

***SPOILERS AHEAD***



5. After Stargirl changes back to "Susan," Leo says "she looked magnificently, wonderfully, gloriously ordinary. She looked just like a hundred other girls at Mica High--I had never been so happy and proud in my whole life." How did you feel when you read this part of the novel?

6. Stargirl is the focus at both the basketball championships and the oratorical contest, but in very different ways. How is she rejected at one and accepted at the other? And how does this acceptance ultimately lead to rejection?

7. Do you think Stargirl made a deliberate attempt to say good-bye at the Ocotillo ball? What do you make of the students' behavior at the ball?

8. What is the irony at the end of Stargirl?

BC About the Author: Jerry Spinelli

Growing up, Jerry Spinelli was really serious about baseball. He played for the Green Sox Little League team in his hometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and dreamed of one day playing for the major leagues, preferably as shortstop for the New York Yankees.

One night during high school, Spinelli watched the football team win an exciting game against one of the best teams in the country. While everyone else rode about town tooting horns in celebration, Spinelli went home and wrote “Goal to Go,” a poem about the game’s defining moment, a goal-line stand. His father submitted the poem to the Norristown Times–Herald, and it was featured in the middle of the sports page a few days later. He then traded in his baseball bat for a pencil, because he knew that he wanted to become a writer. +/-

After graduating from Gettysburg College with an English degree, Spinelli worked full time as a magazine editor. Every day on his lunch hour, he would close his office door and craft novels on yellow magazine copy paper. He wrote four adult novels in 12 years of lunchtime writing, but none of these were accepted for publication. When he submitted a fifth novel about a 13-year-old boy, adult publishers once again rejected his work, but children’s publishers embraced it. Spinelli feels that he accidentally became an author of children’s books.

Spinelli’s hilarious books entertain both children and young adults. Readers see his life in his autobiography Knots in My Yo-Yo String, as well as in his fiction. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved Penn Relays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book, while Maniac Magee is set in a fictional town based on his own hometown.

On inspiration, the Spinelli says: “Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. And from imagination. And from feelings. And from memories. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey.” Spinelli lives with his wife and fellow writer, Eileen, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Their six children have given Jerry Spinelli a plethora of clever material for his writing.

Jerry Spinelli is the author of more than a dozen books for young readers, including Maniac Magee, winner of the Newbery Medal. His novel, Stargirl, was a New York Times bestseller and an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults.

You can visit his website here.