Best Childrens Book of the Semester

Best Children’s book of the Semester


Stargirl

Stargirl is your typical story of boy meets girl, girl is a little crazy, boy still likes girl, girl likes boy, and then ... well I guess it is not the typical story, but it is more real than those others. This was one of my top favorite books that I have read this semester, I think because I could relate a lot to the book. It made me think of me back in the day, like yesterday. There are so many times I have changed myself to fit in. It is crazy the things I have done to make a guy notice me. I remember even back in high school I went through a time where I didn’t even know who I was because I was a different person at home, at school, at color guard, at church, and any place I went I was someone different just so I could fit in. Anyone can relate to this book. Just like Stargirl, even right now in my life, I am not happy not being me. People are always changing who they are; I even see it in some of my good close friends. They are changing for different groups of friends, for church leaders, for teachers, for boys, no one is being the real them, they are all being the person that someone else wants them to be. I just want to be me, like Stargirl was; she had the courage to be herself, and I want to have that too.

Just like a realistic fiction book, this book was real; it could have even been a nonfiction book I think. A lot of times books try to bring real life into them, even television attempts to do that with reality TV, but people just can’t seem to get it right, what they come up with still isn’t how life really is. The story put me back in high school, walking my halls and sitting in my cafitieria. Our school was basically the same, except larger and we didn’t have a star girl. I really cannot think of a person who cannot take this book and relate to it, and put themselves in it.

In the book it is a school like all the other ones, everyone knows everyone, and everyone is accepted. They were happy and fine in their conformity to each other, sounds about right and normal to me. Then Stargirl starts school. She is different, she is her own person, doesn't care what anyone thinks about her, something that we should all strive to be. At first people think this is weird, but then, everyone starts being THEM and not hiding themselves to fit in. How would the world be if we were all like that? If we all became who we were instead of trying to be something we are not. Well Stargirl took herself too far when she started cheering for all the teams and not just her team. The shunning was back on. Don’t we all seem to do that? When someone is who they are and not being someone else to fit in people often shun them or make fun of them. I know that I cannot totally be myself, there are many things that I absolutely love that most people don’t know and probably never will know about me, because if I told them I would risk getting made fun of and people rejecting me for who I really am. Leo, our boy in this story, finally realized after getting over his confused feelings that he was in love with Stargirl and the whole school knew, she loved him and he loved her. As things like this normally go, when someone like the weird person, the shunning moved to Leo as well. He told her she should change, she needed to be like everyone else, being different was a bad thing. That is often what we do in real life, being different is bad and fitting in is good. She then became like everyone else, but that didn’t stop the shunning, so in desperation to not be rejected anymore, Leo started shunning Stargirl.

No one seemed to get the message that Stargirl was teaching them. She was her own person, did her own thing, wore her own clothes, and loved everyone. Even the last time anyone saw her, she had been accepted again by all, (except Leo who didn't go to the dance) and Hillari slapped her and said "Your ruin everything" Stargirl kissed her on the cheek and left. Leo, even after many years, still did not get the whole picture. Why out of everyone did she love him? What was it about her? What made her so different? But he never forgot her, never. Stargirl was not only teaching her school a lesson, but she was teaching the readers a lesson too. So what was this lesson she was teaching, that Leo never understood. I asked myself the same question after I read the book. I sat back and asked myself a few questions and reflected on things. Why am I trying so hard to be someone I am not? I thought of one of my favorite quotes from an amazing movie "Why are you trying so hard to fit in, when you were born to stand out." This sounds like Stargirl, except for the fact that she does stand out, and she is proud of whom she is. Why can’t I be like her? Who am I? Who have I been? Do I like me? Have I been changing for him? Is it the fact that I would do anything for him? Or could it be the years of me forming to others that I am just not me anymore? I need to strive to be more like Stargirl, I think everyone should.

This book says real life, and it really is one of the best books I read this semester and one of my new top favorite books that I would recommend for anyone and everyone to read. I would also want everyone to reflect on the book, and really realize how much they can put themselves in the book and that this book is life, and that is a Stargirl in all of us, we should all let her out and be ourselves.

 
 
<3  Erin Christina