Novel Review: Love, Stargirl (Stargirl, #2) by Jerry Spinelli

Genre: YA Contemporary

Rating (Out of 5): ~4.5

Publisher: Random House (Alfred A. Knopf)

Spoilers?: Very minor.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Love, Stargirl picks up a year after Stargirl ends and reveals the new life of the beloved character who moved away so suddenly at the end of Stargirl. The novel takes the form of "the world's longest letter," in diary form, going from date to date through a little more than a year's time. In her writing, Stargirl mixes memories of her bittersweet time in Mica, Arizona, with involvements with new people in her life.

In Love, Stargirl, we hear the voice of Stargirl herself as she reflects on time, life, Leo, and—of course—love.

Something Specific:
That I Love:

• "He said, 'Are you looking for me?' and shuffled on without waiting for an answer. I called after him, 'I'm looking for me! Have you seen me?!' but he just kept on moving..." (Paperback, pg. 40) (This is just a particular quote that I really liked, that made sense to me, and made me feel even more things for Stargirl.)
• Stargirl. (Because I love her; she is amazing. I talk more about her in the review. 

Review:

I love Stargirl. I just love her, okay? I want to be her best friend.

I was worried that this one wouldn’t be as good as the first, and that maybe I wouldn’t enjoy Stargirl as much as I did in the first, but I was wrong. I was so very wrong. I liked this one even more than the first, and I really liked the first one.

Love, Stargirl takes place a year after the first book, in Stargirl’s point-of-view. With no Leo. Well, only with the thoughts Stargirl has of Leo. And she thinks of him several times, along with the fact that this book is a letter/journal that Stargirl is writing to Leo.

Stargirl is living in a new place than where we last saw her, and she meets an attention-seeking little girl, Dootsie, who turns into her best friend, and an old lady who won’t leave her house, Betty Lou, and an angry pre-teen, Alvina, and a boy named Perry that catches her interest, and a man named Charlie that visits his wife's grave everyday, and a bunch of other people. But of course there are other people, because Stargirl is the type of person that notices the odd-ones-out, the person that becomes their friend. But throughout all of this, she still thinks of Leo. She’s still upset about Leo, missing him, knowing why they didn’t work and wishing that they had.

This is one of the things that really pulled me over the edge to how much I loved Stargirl: her missing Leo, wondering about him, having only a couple pebbles left in her twenty pebble wagon, was how well it was done. She wasn’t constantly thinking about him, she wasn’t showing her misery to everyone, she didn’t mope and whine. She gave little thoughts every once in a while that showed how much she missed him. She was still trying to live her life, was still doing things, giving only little hints that she wasn’t at her happiest. She was lost, was losing herself, and she knew it and, even while not knowing how to fix it, was trying to get over it, to move on. That just made me love and respect her even more.

And I loved seeing and getting the story of all these other people she meets.

This book was just fantastic and more than I’d even hoped for. There are so many little things that are so big, and that you just have to read to understand. Like the characters; you have to read the book to get the significance of what they mean and who they are and how awesome every one of them is. Which, really, is what you should do: read this book. It is absolutely amazing. Almost, maybe, a 5 star, even.

The ending, though. I don’t know about the ending. I liked what happened with Stargirl and Perry, which I hadn’t expected and wasn’t sure about at first, but then there’s Stargirl and Leo. I really want to know what happens with them later. I guess I’m supposed to assume that they meet again later in their lives, but I have a hard time believing that. It just doesn’t work all that well with reality. But it’s possible, and it is what I would really like to happen.

Teaser Tuesday[10]: Love, Stargirl (Stargirl, #2) by Jerry Spinelli

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading! All you have to do to participate is:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TeaserTuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

----------

This week, I’ve mostly been reading adult romances and manga. Nothing too exciting, and not too much, either.

I’m still working out what my set posting schedule will be. I’m planning on doing these every Tuesday, and reviews on the weekend, probably Saturday and Sunday mostly, and I’m thinking about doing one other meme during the week. Thursday, perhaps? I just haven’t decided what, yet. Plus I haven’t started school yet, and I don’t know what that will do to my schedule; hopefully not much, but you never know.

Anyway, what I’m reading right now (or am planning to start reading) is:

Love, Stargirl (Stargirl #2) by Jerry Spinelli

Publisher: Random House (Alfred A. Knopf/Borzoi Books)

“’Ironic,’ Betty Lou said at last. ‘The cereus insists on sunlight---that’s why it must be at the end of the yard. And yet it saves its flower for the moon. The sun never sees what it fathers.’

‘It takes from the day,’ I said, ‘gives to the night.’” (Paperback, pg. 104)

“There’s a banner across Bridge Street. Blood-red with black trembly letters:

                                          THE BLOB IS COMING!” (Paperback, pg. 105)

What are you reading right now (or hoping to be reading)?

Review: Stargirl (Stargirl, #1) by Jerry Spinelli

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.

Spoilers?: Ah, yes.

Amazon Synopsis:

Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first.

Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.

Review:

I had heard a lot of good things about this book, but hadn’t really wanted to pick it up till now. It reminded me a little of Flipped, which was really good, but isn’t really my style. I tend to go for the mature, romantic ones more often. But I was looking for small, cheap-ish books at the time, and decided to grab it, almost as a last-moment decision. And I’m glad that I did.

Stargirl is about Leo, a normal boy going to a very normal school, and a girl named Stargirl who transfers to that school. She’s been homeschooled until now and is very different. She’s loud and bright and has a pet rat and plays the ukulele and she’s everyone’s cheerleader. The people at school, though, have a hard time accepting all of these things about her.

Leo was kind of sweet. I liked him and Stargirl, until he decided to care so much about what everyone thinks. It wasn’t unexpected, it was always there, but he should have tried more for Stargirl. Instead, he tried changing her, which worked for a while. But no one liked her at that point, and her changing did nothing. And she wasn’t happy. She accepted, pretty easily, that Leo cared much more than she did, and so she let him go. He wasn’t going to change then. Which is especially sad, since I liked them together. They could have worked. I would have liked for them to have worked.

Stargirl was fun. I liked her, and I agreed with her on several points, and she really does make you want to be a better person. I mean, why not pay more attention to people’s birthdays and sing them a song and get them a present secretly? Leave change somewhere to make some kids’ day? Be everyone’s Cheerleader? I loved it all. To see her change, sucked, and to see her upset, sucked even more.

I wasn't expecting them to be in high school. I'd just assumed they were younger than that, and so was pleasantly surprised to find out they were older. There wasn't a lot of physical stuff going on, romantically, but there was more than I expected. And I enjoyed it, especially the little hints it gave that they were messing around; it was done in a really sweet, cute, innocent or nostalgic, way. A little like My Girlfriend's A Geek hinted at the romantic stuff, but in a more innocent way. Of course, I enjoy the more straightforward stuff, but this was nice, too.

The ending was a little upsetting and surprising, since I had expected it to take more a route a la the If I Stay series by Gayle Forman or Just Like That by Marsha Qualey, an ending where the two characters meet up again later. I don’t think this one is like that, and I’m not sure if that makes me happy. I don’t think it does, actually. I do plan to read the next one soon, whenever I can get it.

Throughout this book, I wanted to be inside Stargirl’s head as well, wanted to know what was going on in her mind, and so am looking forward to finding out. I’m unsure what will happen, given that I’m pretty sure her and Leo don’t meet up later (unless the book was lying to me, or it was much later), but want to find out either way.

This is definitely a book that I wold recommend.