"She was homeschooling gone amok." "She was an alien." "Her parents were circus acrobats." These are only a few of the theories concocted to explain Stargirl Caraway, a new 10th grader at Arizona's Mica Area High School who wears pioneer dresses and kimonos to school, strums a ukulele in the cafeteria, laughs when there are no jokes, and dances when there is no music.
The whole school, not exactly a "hotbed of nonconformity," is stunned by her, including our 16-year-old narrator Leo Borlock.
In time, incredulity gives way to out-and-out adoration as the student body finds itself helpless to resist Stargirl's wide-eyed charm, pure-spirited friendliness, and penchant for celebrating the achievements of others. In the ultimate high school symbol of acceptance, she is even recruited as a cheerleader. Popularity, of course, is a fragile and fleeting state, and bit by bit, Mica sours on their new idol. Why is Stargirl showing up at the funerals of strangers? Worse, why does she cheer for the opposing basketball teams? The growing hostility comes to a head when she is verbally flogged by resentful students on Leo's televised Hot Seat show in an episode that is too terrible to air. While the playful, chin-held-high Stargirl seems impervious to the shunning that ensues, Leo, who is in the throes of first love (and therefore scornfully deemed "Starboy"), is not made of such strong stuff: "I became angry. I resented having to choose. I refused to choose. I imagined my life without her and without them, and I didn't like it either way."
I could only wish I was as brave and as overwhelmingly generous as the magical girl the book is named after. Told from the perspective of sixteen year old Leo, who falls under her charms like the rest of Mica High School, it is a wistful, heartfelt, and bittersweet narrative that ultimately packs a gentle but firm emotional punch.
This book should be required reading for adults young and old for it's ringing endorsement of individualism.It reminds us that like Stargirl it's okay to be different, that sameness is boring, and that we should all, as Will Shakespeare once said,"To thine own self be true."
At just under two hundred pages it can almost be tackled in one sitting. A perfect gift for someone who may not feel that they totally belong, or that their being different is a bad thing, or simply to be gently reminded that acceptance starts from within.
Stargirl for President!
Five Stars
