Stargirl

I’m going to start off this review with a few questions. How many of you would call yourself non-conformist? How many of you think being different, is simply dressing differently or by listening to a different type of music? Now think about this; being different is doing something that others don’t do. Now I shall give you a statement; Stargirl is different.

Stargirl is narrated by the character Leo and it focuses on Susan Caraway, a girl more commonly known as, Stargirl. She wore long frilly dresses and retro clothing, she carried a ukulele and her pet rat around with her and she decorated her tables with flowers every single period of every single week. She made birthday cards for children if she saw it was their birthday, he helped the sick and deserving - she made her own rules... she was amazing. The students couldn’t comprehend her - they thought she was fake, she was acting, she was planted by the school body to higher morale - but she was far from that; Susan “Stargirl” Caraway was as real as the hard choices life throws at you in well, life. She did everything, for no reward.

Stargirl became like an addiction to the student body, soon everyone began to sing with her, dance with her, put flowers on their desks and ‘the pet shop at the Mica Mall ran out of rats’ - she was accepted... for being different. Stargirl made the cheerleading squad - Stargirl was a role model for the female and the male student body. It was a miracle - something they would never had expected. ‘The trouble with miracles is, they don’t last long’.

One day, in a spur of the moment feeling of curiosity, Leo follows Stargirl after school. But she doesn’t go home. She takes him to a place he’s never been before, her favorite place where she meditates as the sunsets. Leo falls in love.

But soon, people begin to turn against Stargirl. She turns up unwanted at someone’s funeral, she cheers for the other team as well as her own when they score, and people’s opinions of her change. And Leo is stuck right in the middle. His best friend wants to destroy her, but he wants to embrace her. In an attempt to cure this, Leo asks Stargirl to change, and she becomes plain old Susan, all for him. However, Leo soon realizes, that she is better as the girl who dares to be different. Yet Leo is still ashamed of her - so ashamed that he doesn’t escort her to the Ocotillo Ball and that night, she disappears. Gone forever, and yet her memory lives on.

So the relevance of the questions at the beginning of this review, now compare your answer to Stargirl. Are you really non-conformist? Is different really what you thought it was?

Finally, I shall leave you with some facts. Stargirl was originally published in 2000, in the US. It’s written by the author Jerry Spinelli and to me, it is more than a book. Stargirl is a parable teaching you to do what you want, not care about others perception of you and most of all - be different. If everyone was the same, this world would be boring. Stargirl represents the most important thing that this world has - diversity.