Stargirl

What's inside (9 sections)

1. Porcupine Ties and Mica High
2. Ukulele at Lunch
3. Cheering for Both Sides
4. Hot Seat
5. Susan Tries to Be Normal
6. The Ocotillo Ball and Goodbye
7. What Wears Thin and What Holds
8. Key takeaways
9. FAQ

I found Stargirl on a cart outside our library during a sale where paperbacks were a dollar and the good stuff goes fast. The cover was bright and a little worn. I had seen the Disney film mentioned online and I wanted to know if the book earned that soft glow people give it. The book was published in 2000 by Knopf Books for Young Readers and runs 192 pages. It is told by Leo Borlock, a junior at Mica High in Arizona who likes to blend in, and it follows his year with Susan Caraway, the homeschooled tenth grader who calls herself Stargirl. I read it in two sittings on the couch with tea going cold. It charmed me early and it unsettled me after, which I did not expect from a book this short.

Leo is not the hero type. He moved with his family from Pennsylvania to Arizona when he was twelve. Before the move his Uncle Pete gave him a porcupine necktie as a joke gift. Leo started collecting them. When he turned fourteen a little newspaper piece mentioned the collection. Someone sent him another tie in the mail with no note. That small mystery sits at the edge of the story for a long time. Leo likes routine. He likes his best friend Kevin and their student TV show. He likes having a mentor in Archie Brubaker, a retired paleontologist who lives nearby with fossils and desert bones and time to talk. Leo watches people more than he joins them.

Mica High feels like many suburban schools I have known. The halls have their own weather. The football team is called the Electrons and nobody expects much from them. Kids sit in the same lunch spots. They listen to the same jokes. Kevin is loud in a way that makes room for Leo to stay quiet. Kevin coaxes Leo into starting Hot Seat, a closed circuit interview show where they grill classmates while the school watches. Archie listens to their plans and asks plain questions that stick. He does not lecture. He offers a thought and lets it sit. Leo trusts him in the way teens trust adults who do not try to be cool.

Then Stargirl arrives.

She used to be homeschooled. She shows up at Mica with a ukulele and a canvas bag and clothes that look pulled from costume boxes. One day a pioneer dress. Another day a kimono over jeans. She carries her pet rat Cinnamon on her shoulder and he rides there calm as a passenger. She sings Happy Birthday to kids she barely knows during lunch. She plays her ukulele without asking for applause. She greets strangers by name after hearing it once. She drops coins on the sidewalk so someone else will pocket a surprise. She leaves cards on doorsteps for people who are sick or grieving. She goes to funerals in town for people she never met because she thinks someone should witness a life.

At first the school does not know what to do with her. Hillari Kimble decides fast. Hillari is popular and sure of herself and she says out loud that Stargirl is fake. Rumors start about where Stargirl came from and whether teachers planted her to raise spirit. Some kids stare. Some laugh. Leo stares too, but his staring has a different pull. He cannot look away. When Hillari tells Stargirl not to sing to her on her birthday, Stargirl turns in the lunchroom and sings to Leo instead. She says she thinks he is cute. The room notices. Leo feels heat climb up his neck. He likes it and he hates being seen liking it.

I loved those early chapters because Spinelli lets Stargirl be odd without explaining her away. She cheers for strangers at meets. She pats Cinnamon while she talks. She tells Leo she was Susan once and chose Stargirl because the name fit how she wanted to live. Their house has a happy clutter that makes Leo feel both welcome and off balance. He starts waiting for the flash of her skirt down a hall and he starts to feel chosen in a school where he always felt average.

Porcupine Ties and Mica High

Leo tells us right away that he collects porcupine ties because of Uncle Pete. It sounds like a joke and it becomes a thread through the whole book. A tie arrives with no return address. A tie shows up after years of silence. Leo keeps them folded in a drawer. He does not show them off. They mean something private about being seen by someone far off.

His move from Pennsylvania left a mark in a quiet way. He remembers snow and relatives and being new under hard sun. Mica sits in that sprawl where new schools look old in three years. Leo fell into friendship with Kevin because Kevin talks enough for two. They built Hot Seat with a borrowed camera and a classroom that smells of cables. Archie watches the tapes sometimes and laughs in his dry way.

Leo is sixteen and in eleventh grade. He plays in marching band. He gets decent grades. He does not want trouble. When Stargirl appears in tenth grade, she breaks every rule he lives by without seeming to try. She does not whisper. She waves at kids who ignore her. She sits where she wants. Kevin smells a story. He wants Stargirl on Hot Seat because the school is buzzing. Leo wants to warn her and also wants to be near her when the lights are on. That push in two directions shapes everything he does from here.

Ukulele at Lunch

The lunchroom scenes carry the book for a good stretch. Stargirl stands near tables and sings with her ukulele while Cinnamon peers from her shoulder. She remembers birthdays from announcements and from asking around. She brings Halloween candy for the whole table in October. She hands out Valentine cards in February to kids who never get them. Some kids eat it up. They clap. They request songs. They ask about the rat. Cinnamon is clean and calm and rides without fuss. Stargirl answers questions about homeschool with ease. She says she liked learning with her parents and liked the desert as a classroom. She misses no beat when kids test her.

Hillari tests her hardest. She tells Stargirl flat that she does not want a song. She spreads talk that Stargirl seeks attention and fakes kindness. Her boyfriend Wayne Parr backs her with smirks. Dori Dilson does the opposite. Dori is quiet and often alone. She smiles at Stargirl when others look away.

I liked how Spinelli writes the shift from curiosity to scorn to brief welcome without rushing. One week Stargirl is a rumor. The next week she is a mascot. Kids copy her peace signs. They ask her to play at practice. They leave room for her at lunch. Leo walks taller because she picked him. He holds her hand in halls and feels eyes follow. He tells Archie about the thrill and Archie asks what it costs. Leo does not have an answer yet. He thinks love should feel simple. He is about to learn how heavy simple can get.

Cheering for Both Sides

The head cheerleader invites Stargirl to join the squad and she says yes with delight. She learns routines fast. She adds high kicks and spins that make crowds laugh and clap. At football games she lifts a tired student section. The Electrons lose often, but for a few Fridays the stands feel alive. Leo watches from the band in his uniform and feels proud in a way that surprises him. Kevin films from the sidelines for Hot Seat clips. Parents point. Teachers smile. For a short while Stargirl looks like exactly what Mica needed.

Then basketball season starts and the spell cracks. Mica starts winning in the state playoffs. Stargirl keeps cheering with the same wild joy, except now she cheers for good plays on either side. She claps when an opposing guard sinks a clean shot. She waves a foam finger for both benches. The student section groans. Players scowl. Coaches tighten. Leo tries to explain that crowds want loyalty during playoffs. Stargirl looks puzzled. She says a good shot deserves praise no matter the jersey. She means it. That sincerity, which charmed people in losing season, now reads as betrayal.

The worst night comes at a packed gym. A player from the other team falls hard and stays down. Stargirl runs from the cheer line to kneel by him. She holds his hand and talks low while trainers work. The gym goes silent in a bad way. Mica loses focus after and loses the game that many blame on the pause and the mood shift. Kids say she jinxed them. They say she wanted Mica to lose. They stop clapping when she sings. They leave empty chairs near her at lunch. Leo sits with her anyway, but he feels the stares pile on his back like stones. He starts skipping the lunchroom songs. He starts wishing she would cheer a little less loudly.

Hot Seat

Kevin books Stargirl for Hot Seat and Leo agrees to cohost though his stomach knots. The set is a classroom with bright lights and a paper backdrop. At first Stargirl answers with grace. She talks about her name and her rat and why she sings to strangers. The student jury, picked from classes, starts sharp. Hillari leads them. She presses Stargirl about disrupting games and caring about dead strangers and carrying a rat for shock. Other kids pile on. A teacher off camera cuts the taping short when voices rise.

Leo freezes during much of it. He wants to defend her and he wants the show to go well. He manages a few soft follow ups but he does not stop Hillari fast. He hates himself after. Stargirl does not cry on camera. She thanks Kevin with courtesy that stings more than anger would. In the hall after, Hillari smirks like she won a match. Dori walks with Stargirl to her locker without a word. Leo trails behind and cannot find a sentence that fits. That night he calls Archie and talks in circles. Archie listens and then asks the question that frames the rest of the book.

Whose affection do you value more, hers or the others.

Leo writes that line in his head for weeks. He tries to answer it with action and fails. He tells himself he can love Stargirl in private and keep his standing in public. He learns fast that Mica does not allow that split. Kids who sit with Stargirl get the cold shoulder at practice and at parties. Kevin stays friendly but keeps a careful distance on camera. Dori stays close and pays the price without complaint. Hillari grows bolder because silence from adults looks like permission. She flicks a cookie Stargirl offers into the trash and once swings a shoe at it for laughs. Leo watches and says little. Shame builds in him like pressure behind eyes.

Susan Tries to Be Normal

Leo and Stargirl start spending afternoons together away from school. They ride bikes on desert paths. They visit Archie and hear about digs and fossils. They leave happy notes on windshields. They slip coins into meter slots and on curbs. Stargirl tells Leo about funerals she attends for neighbors and strangers. She says grief needs witnesses.

Love grows fast and then fear moves in beside it. Leo feels the shunning spread to him. Old friends stop calling. He imagines senior year marked as the weird couple. He asks Stargirl to change in small ways at first. Could she leave Cinnamon home and wear less startling clothes for a while. Stargirl agrees because she loves him and wants his life to ease. She puts on plain blouses and jeans. She leaves the ukulele in her locker. She goes by Susan, her given name, and asks teachers to call her that.

It does not work. The school had already decided. Kids who shunned Stargirl now shun Susan too. Leo feels worse because now he caused her to hide and gained nothing. Stargirl grasps for a plan. She decides to win the state oratorical contest and earn respect through triumph. She practices with fierce focus. She wins. She calls Leo from the road with joy breaking through static.

What greets her is almost empty. Two teachers wait with polite smiles. Dori holds a huge hand painted sign that reads WAY TO GO SUSAN in red letters. Dori props it so it hides her shaking hands. No band. No cheer squad. No crowd. Leo stands there with his throat tight. Confetti never falls. Stargirl looks past the small group to the vacant lot and understands in one cold flash that fitting in did not fit her. On Monday she is Stargirl again in dress and manner. She kisses Leo and tells him she cannot stay Susan. She says she knows he will not ask her to the Ocotillo Ball, the spring dance, and she says it without blame. That mercy hurts him more than anger would.

The Ocotillo Ball and Goodbye

The dance is held outdoors with strings of lights and a band that plays old favorites. Leo goes with a group and feels hollow in his rented jacket. Stargirl arrives late with Dori on a bicycle draped in sunflowers. Petals shake loose as they wheel in. She wears a long skirt that moves when she moves. She does not scan the crowd for approval. She dances alone at first with loose joy. She coaxes the bandleader into a Bunny Hop line and soon half the class snakes behind her laughing. Even kids who shunned her join because joy is hard to resist under lights. For an hour Mica looks like the school it could be.

Hillari watches from the edge with Wayne. When the line breaks up, she walks to Stargirl and says she ruins everything. She slaps her hard across the face. The crowd stills. Hillari braces for a hit back. Stargirl lifts a hand slow and kisses Hillari on the cheek instead. Then she leaves with Dori while the band fumbles back into a song. Leo does not chase her through the dark. He stands with his hands useless at his sides. He tells himself he will call tomorrow and make it right. Tomorrow never comes in the way he pictures.

Nobody sees Stargirl at school again. Her desk stays empty. Her locker stays shut. Archie tells Leo weeks later that her family moved to Minnesota. No forwarding address is shared. Leo writes letters that come back. He keeps her ukulele pick and a card she left. He graduates and grows older and the year takes on the glow that memory gives. Fifteen years later, near his birthday, a package arrives with no note. Inside is a porcupine necktie. Leo knows who sent it the way you know rain by smell. He holds it and thinks of sunflowers on a bike and a rat asleep on a shoulder and a girl who sang to empty tables.

What Wears Thin and What Holds

I should be honest about where the book drags for me. Stargirl can feel more like a symbol than a teen. We learn her habits in bright detail, yet her inner life stays misty. She forgives fast in ways that seem beyond most fifteen year olds. Hillari also stays flat. She mocks and slaps without a home life or fear to explain the edge. Kevin gets more color as a showman with a soft core, and Dori earns love with few lines.

Leo frustrated me in the middle in a way I think Spinelli intended, yet frustration still counts. He sees the shunning clearly and still asks the person harmed to shrink. The oratorical contest section also leans on wish logic. The empty parking lot lands hard as a scene, but it felt arranged to teach rather than to report how crowds act.

Still, much holds up after twenty plus years. The Arizona setting feels lived in. Heat shimmers off asphalt. Desert evenings cool fast. School gyms smell of sweat and popcorn. The small acts Stargirl practices, singing to a lonely kid or sitting with grief, read as habits rather than slogans. Spinelli writes short chapters that move. He lets silence do work. The slap and kiss scene could have turned mawkish, yet on the page it plays with restraint because Leo does not inflate it. He reports what he saw and what he failed to do.

Who should pick it up now. Middle grade readers ready for high school stories will find it gentle enough, though the romance is teen rather than childlike. High schoolers who feel pressed to smooth their edges may feel recognized. Teachers could pair it with talks about bystanders and about how praise for winning can hide contempt for difference. If you want a book where the odd girl gets crowned and keeps the crown, this will disappoint. If you want a story about a boy who learns what his silence cost, it delivers. I closed it thinking about Dori holding that sign with trembling fingers. That image stayed longer than any speech. It reminded me how little it takes to stand near someone when standing near costs.

I do not agree with every choice Spinelli made, but I am glad the book exists in this short form. It asks a plain question about approval and leaves it ringing. It shows kindness as practice, not pose. And it leaves Leo older and still wondering, which feels true to how first love often ends, with a drawer of keepsakes and a lesson learned too late to use when it mattered.

FAQ

When was Stargirl published?

It was published in 2000 by Knopf Books for Young Readers in a 192-page hardcover edition, first released August 8, 2000.

Is Stargirl part of a series?

Yes, it is book 1 of the Stargirl series, followed by Love, Stargirl from 2007, which is told in her voice after she leaves Arizona.

Who are the main people at Mica High?

Narrator Leo Borlock, Stargirl Susan Caraway, best friend Kevin who cohosts Hot Seat, quiet friend Dori Dilson, and Hillari Kimble who leads the shunning.