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Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1)
Stargirl - Stargirl, Bk 1
Author: Jerry Spinelli
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 Mi...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780439488402
ISBN-10: 0439488400
Publication Date: 2000
Pages: 188
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 28

4 stars, based on 28 ratings
Publisher: Scholastic
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
I read Stargirl because I thought it was about a homeschooled girl and the transition to being in a school. It is that, but it is much more.

It is about being yourself, yet trying to fit in. It is about not caring what others think about you, yet wanting to have friends. It is about school being about more than what is taught by the teachers in the classrooms. It is about life being about more than school and work.

The fact that Stargirl was homeschooled before attending Mica Area High School is somewhat incidental. She could have almost as easily been from another part of the country, or even a different country. It is a way for the author to emphasize that she was not entrenched in "how school works" and the social aspects surrounding school, cliques, and school activities. Having Stargirl be a former homeschooler emphasizes that she is comfortable in her individuality.

This is a great book for anyone interested in viewing teen life through the perspective of a kind, naive, outsider. If you ever felt like the "odd one" in school, this will resonate with you.
skywriter319 avatar reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 784 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
At Mica High School in Mica, Arizona, things are quiet and uneventful. Everyone dresses alike. Everyone thinks alike. No one does anything that their neighbor wouldn't do.

Until Stargirl comes along.

Homeschooled for years, Stargirl defies categorization. She wears long, flowing pioneer dresses daily, intermingled with outrageous costumes. She serenades people with her ukulele at lunch on their birthdays. She brings her pet rat Cinnamon to school. She looks strangers in the eye. She dances to no music and seems to understand something about life that her classmates do not. Mica students aren't sure what to do with her, and she goes from being interesting to admired to shunned and finally ostracized.

Leo Borlock was perfectly happy with his generic Mica life. Then, against his will, he finds himself falling for Stargirl. The two share an incredible, eye-opening romance. In their own little world, everything is perfect and magical. But when they have to face their critical classmates, what will happen to their relationship?

This is by far Jerry Spinelli's best novel. It is a beautifully written story about nonconformity and the seeds of magic and quirkiness that we all possess, though we may not realize it. Readers will wish that they were friends with Stargirl. I was unsatisfied with the ending, but I understand why Spinelli would have ended the novel in that way. There is nothing I would change about this extremely touching and timeless story. I recommend this to everyone, regardless of their age.
albannapoleon avatar reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is a great book that any teen can relate to. It is funny in the great Spinelli style with the humor more geared towards teens. Every student that I recommend this book to loves it and asks if I will loan it to one of their friends. (Even if the friend is not in my class!)
AmazingGrace avatar reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 58 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
A wonderful, touching story for any adolescant boy or girl. Very insightful into today's young adult's thought processes.
reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
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. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew.

This book is delight for everyone who has ever been sixteen (or anyone working on getting there). By far, my favorite of Spinelli's work, and I LOVE Spinelli.
Read All 48 Book Reviews of "Stargirl Stargirl Bk 1"

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lilliebette avatar reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 11 more book reviews
I don't like giving books 5 out of 5, but when a book has a positive message that isn't delivered in a stickingly sweet way, it deverses some major accolades.

Spinelli points to the Stargirl in all of us. To that force inside that stops dead in their tracks to smell the air, cries at a sad story on the news, or beams a huge smile at a stranger. But we restrained our Stargirl to accept the norms of society, to use her when we please, versus letting her run free. Stargirl is about one person who lets her star out, who embodies a reality beyond the restraints of society. Spinelli explores what would happen to that person when facing the harshest critics on earth, High School students. Stargirl borders on the mystical, at moments I did not believe she was human. Spinelli's world is thrown in huge extremes, in an extreme climate-the Arizona desert. Stargirl feels real and impossible at the same time. The new world will enchant you.

I recommend this book to the YA crowd naturally, but also to anyone with a child in high school or has faced school bullying.
alien12 avatar reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 17 more book reviews
This book makes you realize how important it is to think before you speak.
abbykt avatar reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 113 more book reviews
I really enjoyed this book. I found myself really liking Stargirl for all that she was. She is the girl that I sometimes wished I could be in high school but I was too much like Leo at times. There were many times that I found myself feeling like Leo did but wishing that he would go after her and embrace her differences. Don't we all want to be like her, self actualized enough that we are comfortable with our own skin? At the end of the book it was clear that she was the most remembered. Those that were "normal" fell off into obscurity. I felt so bad for Leo for missing out taking Stargirl to the dance and I was ashamed of him when he was proud of her for being normal. Although, I did not want her to pass him by. Stargirl was at times so insightful and Leo just needed to grow into her.
reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 7 more book reviews
Weird, random, and crazy. You will probably like it.
reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 27 more book reviews
This is an inspirational book about how one girl can make a difference in the lives of everyone she meets just by being different.
reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 13 more book reviews
A story about first love and fitting in set in a high school in Arizona. Jerry Spinelli does a good job with this one. It's really good.
reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 100 more book reviews
a masterpiece (imho)
GeniusJen avatar reviewed Stargirl (Stargirl, Bk 1) on + 5322 more book reviews
Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Stargirl Caraway is an enigma. She's the type of girl that you either love or hate--with no room for any emotions in between. When she first comes to the high-school as a sophomore in small town Mica, Arizona, her name reverberates throughout the hallways. What kind of a name is Stargirl? Was she really home-schooled for all these years, or did she just magically appear in Mica? How can she seem so calm, so serene, why eating quietly alone in the lunchroom, then strumming her ukulele as if all alone?

The boys in school are immediately struck by her quiet, unassuming beauty. The girls are both jealous of her innate naturalness and excited to have her enthusiasm in the school. For Leo Borlock, it's a mixture of fear and excitement that has him falling in love with the mysterious Stargirl--and a desire to see her on the Hot Seat, the in-school television show he runs with his best friend, Kevin.

The kids at school embrace Stargirl--her quirkiness, her individuality, her enthusiasm and exuberance for everything she does. She discovers friends and cheerleading, and she's popular. Popular, that is, until she starts rooting for the opposition, determined to bring joy and happiness to everyone, not just her home team. Suddenly, she's not the popular girl that everyone wants to be around. The same individuality that was once embraced is now snubbed, literally, by almost everyone in school. Except for Leo, who's in love with the enigmatic Stargirl, a girl who whole-heartedly loves him back.

Until Leo is forced to choose between the affections of an entire school full of classmates and the maybe-too-individual Stargirl. When faced with the choice of one person versus many, Leo might not be strong enough to make the right decision.

Jerry Spinelli has penned a book that goes straight to the heart of wanting to fit in, of sometimes being too good to believe, of life and love and heartbreak and the desire to be different, yet the same as everyone else. STARGIRL is a pure delight, and you won't be able to help being drawn into this very believable story, and it's truly unbelievable characters.

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