Love, Stargirl

July 16, 2007
In Newbery Medalist Spinelli’s sequel to his 2000 novel Stargirl
, readers join the eponymous heroine and find out how she is coping after being dumped by Leo Borlock. Having moved from Arizona to Pennsylvania, Stargirl records her thoughts, observations and emotions in near daily (unsent) missives to Leo, as she works to move beyond her sadness. Her entries are peppered with poetry as well as little pep talks she writes to herself whenever her spirits are low. (“You have your whole life ahead of you, and all you’re doing is looking back. Grow up, girl. There are some things they don’t teach you in homeschool.”) Stargirl spends most of her time with a talkative six-year-old, Dootsie, a grumpy girl named Alvina, and a handful of older locals with their own quirks and problems. She also meets a boy with a mysterious past; their brief romance and other events combine to lift Stargirl out of her doldrums, as she reconciles her feelings about Leo (“You be you and I’ll be me, today and today and today, and let’s trust the future to tomorrow”). Readers should embrace Stargirl’s originality and bigheartedness, and may be inspired to document their own emotional ups and downs in the Stargirl Journal
, available the same month, which consists of blank lined pages with quotations from both novels. Ages 12-up.

September 1, 2007
Gr 6-10-This brilliant sequel to "Stargirl" (Knopf, 2000) takes place a year later. Now living in Pennsylvania, Stargirl, 15, continues to pine for Leo, who dumped her, and struggles to make a place for herself in her new community. Fortunately, her eclectic neighbors, who include Dootsie, a five-year-old "human bean"; Betty Lou, an agoraphobic divorcée; and Perry Delloplane, an amiable thief, draw her back into life and happiness. Written in diary format-the "world's longest letter," as Stargirl calls it-this novel is as charming and unique as its sensitive, nonconformist heroine. Addressing loss, growing pains, and staying true to oneself, this stellar follow-up is both profound and funny."Terri Clark, Smokey Hill Library, Centennial, CO"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2007
Stargirl (Stargirl, 2000) is disappearing. She and her family (including pet rat Cinnamon) have moved to Pennsylvania, leaving her boyfriend, Leo, behind in Arizona. Can you lose your favorite person without losing yourself? she writes in one of the many letters to him that comprise an epistolary companion to Spinellis first story of the eccentric, large-hearted, happy-to-a-fault teenager. The questions abound: Will she be reunited with her Starboy, or will he be replaced by Perry, the petty-thieving, dangerously attractive new boy in her life? How will she help her new friends (five-year-old motormouth Dootsie, angry Alvina, agoraphobic Betty Lou, grieving widower Charlie, developmentally disabled Arnold)? And are the many genuinely nice moments in this novel buried under too much sentimentality, whimsicality, and self-conscious cuteness? The answer lies with individual readers. The many teens who loved the first book will embrace this sequel. Those who didnt, wont. Its as simple as that.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2007
Stargirl -- the very personification of unconventionality and outsiderhood, the eccentric homeschooled teenager who temporarily reconfigured the entire social structure of staid Mica High in Stargirl (rev. 7/00) -- is back. In this sequel, she has just moved from Arizona to Pennsylvania, and is writing an extended letter to her one-time boyfriend (and Stargirl narrator) Leo detailing her year of adjustment. Spinelli originally presented Stargirl as a symbol of nonconformity, an extraordinary force demanding a reaction from her more-ordinary fellow students; making her into a wholly flesh-and-blood character is a tricky proposition, and Spinelli doesn't quite pull it off. He surrounds the lovesick Stargirl, still an over-the-top personality in her own right, with a host of offbeat characters: a precocious five-year-old named Dootsie with an overly cute vocabulary; an agoraphobic donut-loving divorcee; an angry, insult-hurling tomboy; a widower who sits daily by his wife's grave. The preciousness combines with a relentlessly uplifting plot -- in which Stargirl, having found her place in her new community, decides to turn her face to the sun and the future -- and makes the reader long for the bracing counterweight of those ultra-conventional Mica High cheerleaders.

(Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2008
The eccentric teen who temporarily reconfigured the social structure of Mica High writes an extended letter to her one-time boyfriend, [cf2]Stargirl[cf1] narrator Leo. Stargirl has moved to Pennsylvania, and Spinelli surrounds her with a host of offbeat characters. The preciousness combines with a relentlessly uplifting plot and makes the reader long for the bracing counterweight of those ultra-conventional Mica High cheerleaders.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)