"I love beginnings. If I were in charge of calendars, every day would be January 1."
SPOILER ALERT for the story of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl and Love, Stargirl. You have been warned.
Last semester I took a Young Adult Literature class. One of the books we studied was Jerry Spinelli's stunning novel "Stargirl." Stargirl has received much praise from critics. Wikipedia states, "It was a New York Times Bestseller a Parents Choice Gold Award Winner, an ALA Top Ten Best Books Award winner, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Critics have praised the Stargirl character and the novel's overall message of nonconformity." My reception to the book was mixed. I loved it. And at the same time I disliked it.
Stargirl is a beautiful character, a girl who is comfortable and happy being herself and doing what makes her happy and what she thinks will make other people happy. (Love). She has been homeschooled and in the book starts high school where she is judged, ridiculed, and met with cold and mocking eyes. And then enters Leo. (Love). They start dating and she teaches Leo about the world, opening his eyes to the beauty that comes when you let yourself truly be who you are and take time to truly see and help other people. (Love.) And then, as sadly expected, Leo gets overwhelmed and listens to the voice of conformity and peer pressure. They break up (DISLIKE). The book ends with her family moving. (Dislike.) So I decided overall I didn't like it. Which is sad really because I found so much that I really liked about Spinelli's storytelling, characters, and overall messages.
After my decision not to like the first book, I was against reading the next book. But then at the library today I just picked it up and brought it home...and then devoured it! I loved it! I loved it so much I am recommending it on my blog. :) I don't know what that really means but whatever. The family has moved to a new state, her father starts a new job, Stargirl goes back to being homeschooled, Spinelli introduces some wonderful new characters- including the absolutely adorable Dootsie Pringle (who is so wonderful to get to know and read about!) and the crazy yet wonderful agoraphobic Betty Lou Fern. Spinelli also reintroduces some of the awesome cast from the first novel including Cinnamon (who I hold a special place for in my heart since I once was also the proud "mother of a rat") and Stargirl's parents (who have got to be the most patient and loving parents ever).
And of course there is Stargirl, the epitome of nonconformity, with her pet rat and her happy wagon and her creating her own calendar and smashing all her clocks and watches! She struggles at first to remember who she is after the devastating blow of the end of her first love and even reports, "My happy wagon is almost empty. Only five pebbles left. Happywise, I'm operating on only 25 percent capacity." and your heart just melts for her! But with the help of Dootsie and others, she slowly recalls herself and makes a conscious decision to remember Leo but not lose herself in the process. I love the characters and how you grow to love each of them including old Charlie who goes every day to the cemetery to sit by the grave of his wife, Arnold who wonders aimlessly and saves Cinnamon, and all the others. I love the messages, the stories, the instruction. I shed a tear when I read how her neighbors left their porch lights on to guide her way to the field where she makes her own calendar to count down the time to Winter Solstice and I cried when I read about the orange slices.
Sometimes I finish a book and when I read the last lines so carefully penned by a loving creator, my body and my soul sigh together as one. This was one of those books. Here is an excerpt from the book:
"We Arnold's, our hearts yearn backwards. We long to be found, hoping our searchers have not given up and gone home. But I no longer hope to be found, Leo. Do not follow me! Let's just be fabulously where we are and who we are. You be you and I'll be me, today and today and today, and let's trust the future to tomorrow. Let the stars keep track of us. Let us ride out our own orbits and trust that they will meet. May our reunion be not a finding but a sweet collision of destinies!"
As I said on facebook, "read it. read it. a hundred times read it."
SPOILER ALERT for the story of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl and Love, Stargirl. You have been warned.
Last semester I took a Young Adult Literature class. One of the books we studied was Jerry Spinelli's stunning novel "Stargirl." Stargirl has received much praise from critics. Wikipedia states, "It was a New York Times Bestseller a Parents Choice Gold Award Winner, an ALA Top Ten Best Books Award winner, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Critics have praised the Stargirl character and the novel's overall message of nonconformity." My reception to the book was mixed. I loved it. And at the same time I disliked it.
Stargirl is a beautiful character, a girl who is comfortable and happy being herself and doing what makes her happy and what she thinks will make other people happy. (Love). She has been homeschooled and in the book starts high school where she is judged, ridiculed, and met with cold and mocking eyes. And then enters Leo. (Love). They start dating and she teaches Leo about the world, opening his eyes to the beauty that comes when you let yourself truly be who you are and take time to truly see and help other people. (Love.) And then, as sadly expected, Leo gets overwhelmed and listens to the voice of conformity and peer pressure. They break up (DISLIKE). The book ends with her family moving. (Dislike.) So I decided overall I didn't like it. Which is sad really because I found so much that I really liked about Spinelli's storytelling, characters, and overall messages.
After my decision not to like the first book, I was against reading the next book. But then at the library today I just picked it up and brought it home...and then devoured it! I loved it! I loved it so much I am recommending it on my blog. :) I don't know what that really means but whatever. The family has moved to a new state, her father starts a new job, Stargirl goes back to being homeschooled, Spinelli introduces some wonderful new characters- including the absolutely adorable Dootsie Pringle (who is so wonderful to get to know and read about!) and the crazy yet wonderful agoraphobic Betty Lou Fern. Spinelli also reintroduces some of the awesome cast from the first novel including Cinnamon (who I hold a special place for in my heart since I once was also the proud "mother of a rat") and Stargirl's parents (who have got to be the most patient and loving parents ever).
And of course there is Stargirl, the epitome of nonconformity, with her pet rat and her happy wagon and her creating her own calendar and smashing all her clocks and watches! She struggles at first to remember who she is after the devastating blow of the end of her first love and even reports, "My happy wagon is almost empty. Only five pebbles left. Happywise, I'm operating on only 25 percent capacity." and your heart just melts for her! But with the help of Dootsie and others, she slowly recalls herself and makes a conscious decision to remember Leo but not lose herself in the process. I love the characters and how you grow to love each of them including old Charlie who goes every day to the cemetery to sit by the grave of his wife, Arnold who wonders aimlessly and saves Cinnamon, and all the others. I love the messages, the stories, the instruction. I shed a tear when I read how her neighbors left their porch lights on to guide her way to the field where she makes her own calendar to count down the time to Winter Solstice and I cried when I read about the orange slices.
Sometimes I finish a book and when I read the last lines so carefully penned by a loving creator, my body and my soul sigh together as one. This was one of those books. Here is an excerpt from the book:
"We Arnold's, our hearts yearn backwards. We long to be found, hoping our searchers have not given up and gone home. But I no longer hope to be found, Leo. Do not follow me! Let's just be fabulously where we are and who we are. You be you and I'll be me, today and today and today, and let's trust the future to tomorrow. Let the stars keep track of us. Let us ride out our own orbits and trust that they will meet. May our reunion be not a finding but a sweet collision of destinies!"
As I said on facebook, "read it. read it. a hundred times read it."
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