Common Sense Media Review
A must-read for middle-schoolers to discuss.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
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Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 16 parent reviews
Based on 114 kid reviews
Kids say that the book features a character who is described as "weird" rather than unique, leading to mixed feelings about her portrayal and the overall narrative. While some appreciate its themes of individuality and resilience, others find the plot predictable and characters underdeveloped, resulting in a polarizing reading experience that swings between admiration and frustration.
- polarizing character
- mixed emotions
- themes of individuality
- predictability issues
- relatable for youth
- recommended for middle school
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
What's the Story?
11th-grader Leo has never met anyone like Stargirl, and neither has anyone else at Mica High. She dances around the cafeteria playing a ukulele, and never misses a chance to sing "Happy Birthday." She doesn't act right, she dresses weird, and she is always blazingly herself. At first the students are puzzled, then entranced, and Stargirl becomes the most popular girl at school. And Leo is in love.
But just as quickly Stargirl becomes the most despised student, shunned by the others, and Leo, now her boyfriend, is shunned with her. Though she has opened him up to new ways of experiencing life, when forced to choose between Stargirl and everyone else, Leo does what any teenager would do, and that choice reverberates down the rest of the years of his life.
Is It Any Good?
This is a gently mystical, thought-provoking, and enchanting rumination on conformity. It is, in some ways, a YA version of The Little Prince, or a female version of Spinelli's own award-winning Maniac Magee. A bittersweet paean to eccentricity and nonconformity, it is also a scathing commentary on teenagers, which makes its popularity with them all the more interesting.
Like much of Spinelli's best work, it straddles the line between reality and fantasy, dwelling in the land of legend and allegory. Spinelli himself says, in an interview printed in the back of the book, "the character [is] intended to raise dust in the corners of credibility, to challenge our routine ways of seeing ourselves." It does that -- it's hard to imagine young teens reading this and not having to think hard about their friends, actions, and the outcasts in their own world.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why Leo is drawn to Stargirl and why he feels he has to choose between her and his friends.
If Stargirl showed up at your school, how do you think you and your friends would treat her?
Do you see Stargirl as a role model? Why? What about Leo?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : School
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Alfred A. Knopf
- Publication date : September 7, 2003
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 12 - 17
- Number of pages : 186
- Last updated : July 12, 2017
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