And here we are at the end of the series. Fifteenth in a series of fifteen.
Spinelli, Jerry (2000). Stargirl. NY: Random House. 186 pages.
Evaluation and summary: Leo Borlock is an unremarkable guy at an unremarkable high school. In fact, pretty much everyone at Micah High School is unremarkable, and they like it that way. No one really gets excited about sports or any other extracurricular activities, and most importantly, no one is different enough to stand out – until Stargirl arrives. She is very different, from her unusual garb, to her penchant for singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to anyone and everyone (while playing the ukelele), to her habit of attending the funerals of complete strangers. Leo falls head over heals for Stargirl, but will their relationship survive their classmates’ shunning of Stargirl?
When choosing the titles for this series, I tried to mix up the types of books I selected, varying the genres and picking some books that weren’t to my personal taste in reading material. Based on a classmate’s book talk I chose Stargirl, along with Heavy Metal and You, as books about romance and relationships, as opposed to my usual fare of ray guns, sword points or flintlocks. And maybe it’s because the book is not my usual fare, but I didn’t much care for Stargirl, despite the pile of awards it won.
My cool reaction to Stargirl is due to the characters. Stargirl herself is entirely too good to be true, saint like in her regard for others. Just as David Levithan created an ideal world (or at least an ideal town) to make a point, Spinelli created an ideal character to make a different point. Leo, while a little more believable as a real person than Stargirl, is a lot less likable. The only character I found appealing never spoke a word: Dori, Stargirl’s friend who remains loyal throughout all the events of the book.
Booktalk hook: I can see the appeal but I personally wouldn’t try to convince anyone to read Stargirl. The book did won loads of awards, so this may be just a matter of taste.
Yeah, I thought Stargirl was a little too much. With its focus on Leo’s perception and experience of Stargirl, I felt like this novel was less about a character and more about The Male Gaze. Gag.