Just Finished Reading...

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Yes, that's her name. And before that it was Hullygully. Before Hullygully it was Mudpie. Before that she was Pocket Mouse. Originally she was Susan.

"So...you change your name whenever you get tired of it?"

"Whenever it doesn't fit anymore. I'm not my name. My name is something I wear, like a shirt. It gets worn, I outgrow it, I change it."

This just scratches the surface of the title character in the story. We never understand Stargirl on an intimate level; instead we see her through eyes of Leo Borlock. He is enamored with her. She strums her ukulele and sings "Happy Birthday" to students in the cafeteria. She has a pet rat named Cinnamon. She sends cards to strangers anonymously. She cheers for the other team. She cares about other people. She never seems to care what other people think of her.

Leo cares, though. He and Stargirl have been "shunned" by the school populace. He feels invisible and it bothers him.

This is a great story about conformity and staying true to yourself. After reading it, I wish I had a little bit of Stargirl in me. I wish I didn't care what others thought. But I have to identify with Leo. As humans, we need to feel we belong. We need interaction with others to feel our own existence. And so Leo has to make a choice: happiness he feels with Stargirl, or the approval of his peers.

Spinelli does not preach to the reader; instead he draws us in with Stargirl's odd behavior. What weird thing is she going to do next? While Stargirl's behavior and reactions do seem to be unfathomable, it's Leo who we are supposed to learn from. Stargirl is a mythical Santa Claus who visits a run-of-the-mill town. Leo is all of us. If we ever were lucky enough to meet a "Stargirl," would we react the same? Make the same choices? This goes along with Kelly Gallagher's argument that reading is like a dress rehearsal for real life. Students can use Leo's lesson as an example for making decisions when they come to similar crossroads in their own lives.

There is a follow up to Stargirl called Love, Stargirl. It's set a year later and from Stargirl's perspective. I'm not sure if I'm interested in reading it, though. I feel like she was meant to be this impossible thing to touch, to understand. To get inside her head would be like killing the mystery that is half of her charm. I'll wait until I hear something more about it.