Search - Stargirl

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.

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!)

This book was amazing (: I read it a few years ago and fell in love with. I've read it every year since then! It makes you cry, smile, and laugh. Some of the things Stargirl does just makes you wish you could've thought of those genius ideas first! Wonderfully written. One of my all time favorites! HIGHLY SUGGESTED!

Jerry Spinelli is one of my favorite authors even well into adulthood. He still teaches the simple lessons I missed in childhood. Stargirl is a sweet,funny, at time heartbreaking story about being brave and the beauty of first love. I look forward to reading the sequel to this "Love, Stargirl".

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.

This book makes you realize how important it is to think before you speak.