Stargirl

Plot: this book is about a 10th grade girl named Stargirl Caraway. She is very friendly and happy. She is a little unusual because she carries a ukulele around with her and strums it at lunch. She is also unusual because she shows up at stranger's funerals and cheers for the opposing basketball team. This book teaches a lesson that everyone should follow which is to always be yourself and never change. This is what made Stargirl better than everyone else. I recommend this book to everyone and of all ages too.

Character Description: the characters i am choosing to describe are Stargirl and Leo Borlock.

• Stargirl- she is the new student at Mica High. She has been homeschooled for 10 years nad is now going to a real high school where she isn't accepted very well. i like Stargirl because even though she is different she doesn't change or try to act different. i don't think i would like to be in Stargirl's shoes, especially on the first day of school. I say this because she was wearing like her Grandma's wedding gown and had a large canvas with a sunflower on it as her lunch bag. All i can say is that Stargirl is unique.
• Leo- he is an 11th grader who has an in-school T.V show called Hot Seat. When he first sees her, he thinks she is a complete weirdo just because she doesn't dress like everybody else and plays a different instrument. I like Leo because even though he think Stargirl is weird, he doesn't say anything mean to her, but what ends up happening is that he falls in love and is eventually known as "Starboy." Leo is not a bad student or a jock, whichmeans he is nice and mellow.

Your Thoughts: i thought this book was very good, but at the beginning it was slow. In this book there is a prologue, which doesn't make sense until the very end of the book. I like the way the author made the narrator one of Stargirl's classmates, this classmate was Leo Borlock. I liked it because since he went to school with Stargirl, it made me feel as if i was there too. This book was one fo the best books i have read and i can't wait to read the sequel, Love, Stargirl.

Reading Strategies: the reading strategy i used was making connections. I used this strategy by making text-to-self connections. The connections i made were like cheering for the opposing sport's team, being made fun of and having someone think your weird but still be your friend. I can also make a text-to-text connection. the book i can make a connection to is Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn. The songle connection i can make is that they are both different from the average person. This is not always a bad thing.

Author Information: the author of this book is Jerry Spinelli. He graduated from Gettysburg College and now lives with his wife, Eileen, in Pennsylvania. He has written many other novels such as Maniac Magee, Loser, Wringer, etc. He has won a Newbery Honor Award for his novel Crash and Knots in my Yo-Yo String. I like the way he put a prologue in the book.