Stargirl
"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: "She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the  faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl."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 televisedHot Seatshow 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."Jerry Spinelli, author of Newbery MedalistManiac Magee, Newbery Honor  BookWringer, and many  other excellent books for teens, elegantly and accurately captures the  collective, not-always-pretty emotions of a high school microcosm in which  individuality is pitted against conformity. Spinelli's Stargirl is a  supernatural teen character--absolutely egoless, altruistic, in touch with  life's primitive rhythms, meditative, untouched by popular culture, and  supremely self-confident. It is the sensitive Leo whom readers will relate to as  he grapples with who she is, who he is, who they are together as Stargirl and  Starboy, and indeed, what it means to be a human being on a planet that is rich  with wonders. (Ages 10 to 14)--Karin Snelson--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.