Summary Of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl

In our daily lives we face the fear of not being able to fit in with the popular crowd, or being unable to impress our “friends”. In the novel Rules by Cynthia Lord this idea is repeated constantly. In Rules the genre is realistic fiction. The events that take place in this book could easily take place in our daily lives. The author Cynthia Lord is a very talented author who has won the John Newbery Medal, and the Schneider Family Book Award. The book Rules was published in the year 2006 and won these awards in 2007. After Cynthia Lord attended college she became a teacher for kids in the sixth grade.

Jeannette’s battle against sexual abuse helps encourage teens who have experienced similar situations to fight on. As Jeannette Walls fights to institute normality in her family, abnormality is established by her parents. Reading such a story has a greater affect on teens, rather than reading an article on the topic of abnormality would because the teen can make more connections to the story. Peer pressure plays a strong role in the life of a teenager and causes the adolescent to conform in fear of rejection from their peers. With this being said, displaying novels about peer pressure and reading on how fictitious characters handle peer pressure not only helps the teen learn from the character’s mistakes, but teaches them how to problem solve for themselves. Rita Mae Brown once said, “The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself.” Going against the status quo may not make those around you happy, but it will make you happier in the long

The theme of the novel is to not follow the crowd, because it may lead you into the wrong direction. Truly followed the populars and dropped her friends who “saved her in the 6th grade.” This teaches middle school girls to have more

Stargirl Essay Stargirl is unique in a few ways like she wears different dresses like pioneer dresses and she carries a pet rat named cinnamon and she cheers for the other team and she sings people happy Birthday in the lunchroom. Stargirl shows some conformity in a few ways like she joined the cheer team and she likes a boy in her school or when she was in part of “Hot Seat”. If Stargirl went to Greenbrier Junior High School I think she wouldn’t make it because she is too soft and the teachers are so mean

“ I drove despite the broken promises and heartache and all the lying and stealing and flimsy, sorry-as-hell excuses” (4). Sweetgirl by Travis Mulhauser is a very intriguing fiction book. I read half my book and already have a great understanding of it. This book is about a 16 year old girl, Percy, in search of her mother. Percy’s mother, Carletta, chose drugs over her kids. Percy hasn’t given up on her mother yet though, she still has hope in her mother.

Though this book is written from a young girl’s point of view, even in the first hundred pages there are various forms of

A young adult novel’s audience often desires relatable characters and a meaningful plot that helps them to find resolutions to their own uncertainties concerning life. Many authors employ the literary technique realism to satiate these cravings. Today, there are some popular novels that attempt to imitate this, such as the coveted The Fault in Our Stars or Divergent. These selections, while widespread in the hands of young adult readers today, will not stand the test of time in the way that The Outsiders has, written by S. E. Hinton in 1967, has. This novel, both produced by and intended for teenagers, instead is a better candidate of realistic young adult fiction. Other selections, from Hinton’s era and from today, do not radiate the same

When this romance initially commences, Leo notices people treating him differently as if he is an alien. This is because Stargirl is an extraordinarily typical girl who doesn’t track the culture of the school. She plays an ukulele, keeps a pet rat in her tote bag, treats everyone with kindness and serenades them in the lunchroom on their birthdays. As a result Leo requests Stargirl to transform her identity so she can fit into the school, and people won’t look down upon them. He wants her to conform into the society. She adjusts her name into “Susan”—an “ordinary” high school girl. The reader discovers in this progression that she is discontented pretending to be what she isn’t. Ultimately, she is happiest when she is factual to herself. As she articulates “Every once in a while someone comes along who is . . . a little more in touch with the stuff we’re made of, it’s our identity what really perceives who I am rather than assimilating I rather enjoy myself as who I really am. ” (Spinelli, Stargirl 177). This advocates that perhaps one can take a message from her and be a little truer to one self. Rather than following what others say and having no genuine identity, it is vital to build up an own identity a way one can be referred to as.

Stargirl has always been homeschooled up until her freshman year. When she transitions to traditional school, she boldly sticks out with her quirky personality, and not in a good way. Already on the first day, there are rumors circulating around her. Everyone thinks she is an actor who was planted by the administration in order to encourage more school spirit. Kevin even says “‘I mean if she’s real, she’s in big trouble. How long do you think somebody who’s really like that is going to last around here’” (Spinelli 9)? He is pointing out how different Stargirl is, and

Throughout the novel Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, several topics across the novel contribute to the overall theme. From identity, conformity to bullying, the topics of Stargirl cover everything under the Mica sun. Conformity is touched after everyone in Mica Area High School is described as conformists, blending into one another. Identity is challenged by Stargirl as she breaks away from conformity. Bullying makes its debut after the kids at MAHS reject Stargirls quirky ways. Overall, the Stargirl novel puts a fresh take on the underlining theme most people aren’t true to themselves unless they are confident.

In the novel Stargirl a teenager in high school is very outgoing and a little “weird” to the other students at Micah High School. She has to face a big decision to become a conformist to the high school norms or be a nonconformist and be her unique self. She meets a boy Leo who will impact her decision heavily. The other students are very rude to her because they are, in away, scared of her because she isn’t “normal”. Archie a old man that students often went to for stories understood Stargirl and helped other to except her.

The theme of Stargirl is to always be yourself, it’s the best person there is for you. It tells you to be a Stargirl, be different don’t follow the crowd. People will like you for you and if they don’t then it`s their loss. It teaches you valuable lessons, like to never let people come in the way if you really love someone. To just push them aside and let you make the choice, what`s more important my peers or someone that I love? They give many examples of this in the book, here are some….. ~`` We did not know what to do make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a cork board like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and she flew away.`` - pg. 15 This piece of figurative language is saying they tried to change her, or put her into place. But when they tried, she barely changed and striated from the crowd. ~It was during one of these night moon times that it came to me that Hillari Kimble was wring. Stargirl was real.``-pg.12 This is saying that he thought about Stargirl and she was just really being herself, and she was different but it was ok. ~``. The lie dormant and waiting, these mud frogs, for without water their lives are incomplete, they are not fully themselves. For many months the sleeps like this within the earth. And then the rain comes. And a hundred pairs o eyes pop out of the mud, and at night a

In An Argument for Being a Poser, Liz Armstrong describes the crucial dilemma every young person faces about their identity, and to which subgenre do they belong to. Armstrong argues that such question can be both totally ridiculous, and actually very important; which leads to beginning of the process of discovering “who you are.” Furthermore, she describes the fictional subculture that you chose for your escape; within your chosen subgenre you don’t have to pretend to be different, and people understand you. In other words, your chosen subgenre is your place of escape, it is the place where acceptance and freedom is present. Besides, the fact of looking for a hidey-hole, she informs us with a life changing situation at the age of 16 years old. She describes the experience as being life changing, the kids she came across were simultaneously were role-playing and professing as being someone which they weren’t part of. Consequently, Armstrong used that moment to adapt to new change, which she describes as “not dressing up or being normal again.” She describes herself looking like a punk one day with a spiked collar, a crushed-velvet mini skirt the another day. Thus, for that reason she couldn’t fit in with honor students, nor the art kids. She couldn’t fit in with the honor student because for them she was too weird, but for the art kids she couldn’t draw. For this reason, she went from being a straight-A student to a what she describes a poser. Furthermore, Armstrong argues

“Everyone is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking that it’s stupid.” ― Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Fish In A Tree. The theme of this story is you shouldn’t let anyone make you think that you don’t belong because your different and that were are unique in own special type of way and we should appreciate our differences. This is the theme because Ally learned an important lesson not to care what other people say, to have confidence in yourself, and also to accept differences and express

This charming story reverses the typical roles within a children’s book. With underlying issues of stereotypes, independence and empowerment, it fills children with imagination and teaches them the importance of being strong, smart, and the realization that beauty comes from within.