Stargirl By Jerry Spinelli
"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."(from Amazon.com)
It was the first day of school at Mica High School and the halls are buzzing about the new girl who calls herself Stargirl Caraway. To say she is different is an understatement.
Her clothes are different as are her mannerisms, and she has a pet rat she carries around in a bag that has a picture of a Sunflower on it. Leo Borlock learns about Stargirl from his best friend Kevin Quinlan. During lunch, while Leo and Kevin are sitting together, Stargirl pulls out a Ukulele and begins to strum on it and dance around the lunchroom. Day after day she does this focusing on one particular person to whom she sings Happy Birthday. It is unclear how she knows that someone has a birthday. Hillari Kimble says she thinks Stargirl is a "plant," someone put in the school to bring up School Spirit and "stir things up a bit". Then she chooses Leo, a quiet boy in charge of the schools talk show "the Hot seat" to be her boyfrined. Snd everything seems to be going okay, until one day, Leo notices that no one talks to him anymore. No one looks him in the eye. Slowly, subtly, he is shunned.
What would you choose? Popularity? or self respect? in an everyday setting of a Normal high school where people don't want to stand out, Stargirl causes such disruption with her unique style. She chooses not to be like everyone else and is perfectly comfortable with it. In the voice of Leo, stargirls choice of boyfriend, we see her rise and fall in popularity and go through a complete transformation into a Normal high school girl. From peasent dresses and ukuele to makeup and tight jeans. But does it make a difference? is her reputation already ruined? And do people see this as a threat still?
young people are really vicious and vindictive. you can cover it up as much as possible but
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