Love, Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli

Yes, so soon after reading the original Stargirl, I dived into it's sequel. I started it yesterday and barely came up for breath until I finished it this evening. I loved, loved, loved it even better than the first one. It's about the same silly character who brings joy to strangers lives and experiences every day to it's fullest, but this time, it's from her point of view.

The book has quite a fascinating format. It's written in sort of a journal like fashion, though Stargirl calls it the World's Longest Letter, because she pretends that she's writing to the boy that broke up with her in the last book, Leo. She starts at the beginning of an unknown year, on January 1st, and writes nearly every day, like a regular journal, all the way to the close of the year, spilling over to January 2nd. In this World's Longest Letter, Stargirl reveals and relates all her year's adventures in the town she's recently moved in and introduces readers to quite a cast of funny, authentic characters, the neighbors she makes life-long friends with.

I think Stargirl has turned into one of my favorite characters of all time. I may have a lot of other authors, stories and book series that I like better than Jerry Spinelli and his novels (no offense to Jerry! I absolutely love his writing style. Still, I have my favorite epics), but Stargirl is totally awesome! ^_^ She's homeschooled, like me, but she's just someone else!

All the little stories contained in the larger story were so intriguing, and it was wonderful how it all came together in the end. I liked the romance part about it, in which there's a guy Stargirl thinks she likes, but she still believes she's in love with Leo. Yes, even Stargirl's life gets confused like that once in a while. She is a teenager, after all. But I simply loved the entire thing. The feeling that I'm reading someone like Stargirl's personal journal is, personally, quite a thrill.

You must read this book, as well as it's predecessor. Read both of them, one after the other. Your life will not be complete until you do!

Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli

I remember that last year (before this blog) I read a couple Jerry Spinelli books and really enjoyed them. For some reason I haven't read anything else by him in quite a while, but I found this book of his on the library's YA shelf. It was of a thin length, so I knew it would be an easy read. I basically based my decision for checking out a book on whether the synopsis on the back or the inside flap told a good story that would hook me in. And this book certainly did that trick.

Like The Rule of Won, this book takes place in the regular world of high school students, no fantasy or sci-fi elements whatsoever. On the first day of school, a strange new girl no one has seen before shows up and blows their minds away! Why, you ask? Because she's crazy! Incredibly friendly to perfect strangers, genuinely kind and caring, spontaneous, and a joy to be around. She absolutely does not believe in peer pressure. Other ways that she is different: She dresses in weird costumes, she brings her pet rat to school with her, she plays the ukulele (which she uses to sing Happy Birthday to whoever's birthday it is on any given day. Yeah, somehow, she knows everybody's birth dates) and at school games, she cheers for the other team as well as her own!

Her name, oddly enough, is Stargirl. This actually isn't her given name, but she claims that she likes to wear names like articles of clothing, and she replaces them when they don't fit anymore, so this time she calls herself Stargirl. At the start, everyone loves Stargirl and she becomes the most popular girl in school, because she's so honest and not fake, and gives off such a good energy. But then the kids find a reason to strongly dislike her different-ness, even hating her for it, so they collectively shun her. But Stargirl doesn't seem to care, either way. She just goes about business as usual.

The boy who narrates this story in the first person gets lucky enough to be Stargirl's boyfriend, and he loves every kooky thing about her. But when Stargirl starts getting ignored, so does he. Everyone stops talking to him, acknowledging his existence. He can't have both Stargirl and his friends, so how could he choose? Will it be possible for him to turn innocent Stargirl... normal?

This story seemed to have a pretty powerful message about nonconformity, and breaking the status quo. If anyone can take a leaf out of Stargirl's book, it seems that overall they'd be much happier, and more grateful to be alive every day. It's fun to do crazy, unpredictable things. At least, it's fun reading about it, but it makes you wish you could be brave enough to do those wacky things. But being human, aren't we already all crazy, in our own special way? Give this book a read. I think you'll enjoy it.