Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - At some time in our lives, I think we all may have met a Stargirl. Or maybe it was you. Perhaps not to the extremes that Spinelli's Stargirl went, but certainly parts of her we've all met before. She is that being who I believe is in all of us. That part that early on in life gets rejected. Only because it doesn't conform to the rules that are thrust upon us at an early age. Particularly in high school, where Stargirl enters the story, told by Leo who is confused in his attraction to her and torn between wanting what all high school kids want - to be accepted for who they are, even if they aren't quite sure who that is yet.

But it was surprising to see how the kids all rejected her for the same reasons that they first accepted her and actually started behaving like her (When a true genius appears in the world you will know him by this sign; all the dunces are in confederacy against him - one of my favorite quotes by Jonathan Swift). She is the free spirit that we all hope to be but fear also since it makes us different from others. Who do you think you are, what makes you so special?

By the end of the book I despised the kids at the high school for trying to burst Stargirl's bubble, trying to break her spirit and make her conform. Perhaps they were unhappy with their own ordinariness and wished they could be more like her, always. They copied her for a short time (the best form of flattery) but then went back to their comfort zone - their ordinariness. Probably because she had something more that they didn't have. She was secure in her uniqueness, being who she wanted to be, not who the kids at school wanted her to be. She tried being like them and they still disliked her. Her star shone so brightly - they chose the more worn path that the majority of people take. Shine on Stargirl!

I rate Stargirl 5 out of 5 stars *****

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