Book-It '10! Book #10
The Fifty Books Challenge, year two! This was a library request.
Title: Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Details: Copyright 2007, Knopf Books
Synopsis (By Way of Inside Flap): "Stargirl has moved and left everything behind: Arizona, Mica High, enchanted desert places-- and Leo.
He's all she can think about, and her life begins to feel like a parade of unhappy anniversaries. Then Stargirl meets her wonderfully bizarre new neighbors: Dootsie, the curly-headed five-year-old 'human bean'; Betty Lou, who hasn't stepped outside her house for nine years; Charlie, who sits among the tombstones; hot-tempered Alvina with that one glittery nail; and Perry Dellophane, the blue-eyed thief who soon lays his own claim to Stargirl's heart.
In letters to Leo over the course of a year, Stargirl comes to find hope in new places: mockingbirds, donut angels, moon flowers, and the Winter Solstice-- that turning-point day when dark tips to light. But what's life without Leo? Will he- can he --answer that one crucial question she asks every morning to the rising sun?
In this companion novel to Stargirl, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli continues his beloved heroine's story in a tale of hurt and healing, promise and revelation, solstice and sunbeams."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Having read the wonderful Stargirl, I was eager to read the sequel (or "companion" as it's known).
How I Liked It: How does a sequel manage to be even better than the original?
It's clear from the original book that Spinelli intended Stargirl to be a stand-alone story of a eccentric character that defined the life of a boy and just as quickly left it. However, what one can only assume was due to the massive acclaim for Stargirl, seven years later he produced a sequel.
I was eager to see how it would be handled since aside from my love of the first book, the first book takes us fifteen years into the future where Stargirl and Leo have reconnected (or at least, we have the suggestion that they have). I assumed that because this was a sequel, we'd have some mention (further mention?) of their actual re-meeting.
We don't (see the spoiler warning), but I wasn't disappointed. Love, Stargirl is a sprawling, gorgeous book with a rich cast and a wonderful pacing that manages to almost dwarf the work from which it spawned. Despite what would seem like a limited format (Stargirl's "world's longest letter" to Leo which reads like a diary), we're given a much more developed cast of characters (which could be convincingly argued because this time Stargirl is the narrator, not Leo) to which Spinelli weaves the reader by strong connection (we see the personal development and achievements of no less than three major characters).
Even if the book didn't have the fifteen-year meet-up I was hoping for, it's such a heartfelt story on its own you don't care.
Notable: I'm a known stickler for time and dates in stories. I like books to be set in specific years, particularly if activity happens over a period of time.
I don't begrudge Spinelli for a sequel that doesn't quite match up to the particulars of initial work. However, one thing stuck out for me.
In Stargirl, Leo Borlock relates his life post-Stargirl, fifteen years into the future. Given that Stargirl was published in 2000, let's say that when he says
"That was fifteen years ago. Fifteen Valentine's Days." (pg 176, Stargirl)
he is recalling Valentine's Day 1985. Fine.
In Love, Stargirl, which begins in the middle of the next school year after she met Leo (the book starts January 1st) which if we believe the theory of the timeline put forth in Stargirl, would make this 1986.
About halfway through the book in early September, Stargirl talks about purchasing a DVD, therefore planting the book firmly in the present day (or at least as recently as the late '90s). I'd been keeping an eye for cultural markers in the book and found almost none (Stargirl doesn't surf the internet and cell phones are nowhere in sight) save for a character mentioning the "Where's the Beef?" series of advertisements as an "old" commercial (with the timeline theory, that would make it two years old). The DVD mention of course was clue that there probably wasn't going to be a mention of their fifteen year reunion (if they had one) in this book, anyway.
And the fact my only problem with this book is that minuscule, extremely nit-picky, non-issue should tell you something about the quality of these books.
Title: Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Details: Copyright 2007, Knopf Books
Synopsis (By Way of Inside Flap): "Stargirl has moved and left everything behind: Arizona, Mica High, enchanted desert places-- and Leo.
He's all she can think about, and her life begins to feel like a parade of unhappy anniversaries. Then Stargirl meets her wonderfully bizarre new neighbors: Dootsie, the curly-headed five-year-old 'human bean'; Betty Lou, who hasn't stepped outside her house for nine years; Charlie, who sits among the tombstones; hot-tempered Alvina with that one glittery nail; and Perry Dellophane, the blue-eyed thief who soon lays his own claim to Stargirl's heart.
In letters to Leo over the course of a year, Stargirl comes to find hope in new places: mockingbirds, donut angels, moon flowers, and the Winter Solstice-- that turning-point day when dark tips to light. But what's life without Leo? Will he- can he --answer that one crucial question she asks every morning to the rising sun?
In this companion novel to Stargirl, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli continues his beloved heroine's story in a tale of hurt and healing, promise and revelation, solstice and sunbeams."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Having read the wonderful Stargirl, I was eager to read the sequel (or "companion" as it's known).
How I Liked It: How does a sequel manage to be even better than the original?
It's clear from the original book that Spinelli intended Stargirl to be a stand-alone story of a eccentric character that defined the life of a boy and just as quickly left it. However, what one can only assume was due to the massive acclaim for Stargirl, seven years later he produced a sequel.
I was eager to see how it would be handled since aside from my love of the first book, the first book takes us fifteen years into the future where Stargirl and Leo have reconnected (or at least, we have the suggestion that they have). I assumed that because this was a sequel, we'd have some mention (further mention?) of their actual re-meeting.
We don't (see the spoiler warning), but I wasn't disappointed. Love, Stargirl is a sprawling, gorgeous book with a rich cast and a wonderful pacing that manages to almost dwarf the work from which it spawned. Despite what would seem like a limited format (Stargirl's "world's longest letter" to Leo which reads like a diary), we're given a much more developed cast of characters (which could be convincingly argued because this time Stargirl is the narrator, not Leo) to which Spinelli weaves the reader by strong connection (we see the personal development and achievements of no less than three major characters).
Even if the book didn't have the fifteen-year meet-up I was hoping for, it's such a heartfelt story on its own you don't care.
Notable: I'm a known stickler for time and dates in stories. I like books to be set in specific years, particularly if activity happens over a period of time.
I don't begrudge Spinelli for a sequel that doesn't quite match up to the particulars of initial work. However, one thing stuck out for me.
In Stargirl, Leo Borlock relates his life post-Stargirl, fifteen years into the future. Given that Stargirl was published in 2000, let's say that when he says
"That was fifteen years ago. Fifteen Valentine's Days." (pg 176, Stargirl)
he is recalling Valentine's Day 1985. Fine.
In Love, Stargirl, which begins in the middle of the next school year after she met Leo (the book starts January 1st) which if we believe the theory of the timeline put forth in Stargirl, would make this 1986.
About halfway through the book in early September, Stargirl talks about purchasing a DVD, therefore planting the book firmly in the present day (or at least as recently as the late '90s). I'd been keeping an eye for cultural markers in the book and found almost none (Stargirl doesn't surf the internet and cell phones are nowhere in sight) save for a character mentioning the "Where's the Beef?" series of advertisements as an "old" commercial (with the timeline theory, that would make it two years old). The DVD mention of course was clue that there probably wasn't going to be a mention of their fifteen year reunion (if they had one) in this book, anyway.
And the fact my only problem with this book is that minuscule, extremely nit-picky, non-issue should tell you something about the quality of these books.