Particles of Literature

Eyewitness News: Congratulations, Stargirl, on your outstanding victory. How does it feel to walk away with the first place trophy?

Stargirl: Thank-you. It feels great! I am so excited to take my trophy home and share it with my school. I’m sure they can’t wait to see it.


Eyewitness News: Your speech was mesmerizing. How long did it take you to practice it to that perfection?

Stargirl: Oh I didn’t. It just came to me.

Eyewitness News: Wow! It just can to you? Where do you get your inspiration?

Stargirl: I get my inspiration from all around me: Leo here (isn’t he just so cute?) but everyone around me has something to offer. Oh and my enchanted place.

Eyewitness News: What’s an Enchanted Place?

Stargirl: It’s a place where I go to leave my worries behind. It a place where I let go of everything and become nothing; a place where I become one with the earth, and the spirits beyond.

Eyewitness News: Wow! That’s pretty interesting. Can anyone have an Enchanted Place?

Stargirl: Of course! You just have to let the idea travel from your head to your heart. You have to believe. Anything is possible if you believe.

Eyewitness News: You’re quite an amazing you lady. Congratulations again. What are your plans for the future?

Stargirl: I’m not sure about my future. But After I get rested up from the huge victory party that’s awaiting me, I’m going to Disney Land!

My Dearest Leo,

By the time you get this I will be gone. I’m sure someday you’ll understand all this, and you just wanted me to be what you knew. I don’t regret the Susan experiment but I just couldn’t go on that way. I’m only happy when I’m allowed to be myself. Susan was not me, it was pretending.

When we returned home from the oratorical competition without the hero’s welcome, I went home and removed the last two stones from my wagon. It was at that moment I knew I could no longer be who you wanted me to be. You are a great boy, Leo. You’re cute, smart, and funny, but you need to learn to be comfortable in your own skin, to be a free spirit.

If you ever want to connect with me go to our enchanted pace, and my spirit will connect with yours and become one.

Take care and keep collecting those porcupine ties.

I’ll always miss you.

Love,
Stargirl

Starlgirl, October 20, 2005
A Kid's Review (Here)
”Stargirl has been homescholed all of her life. Then Stargirl comes to a public school. Her real name is Susan Caraway. Everyone makes fun of her because of the things she does. She sings on peoples birthdays and cheers when someone pickes up a piece of trash in the hallways. In the second week of school there was a rumor going around that she wanst't real. But she was real. During the first football game of the season she was there. She cheers for not only for her team but the other team to. Leo is her only friend. Everyone makes fun of her and never talks to her. Leo convinces her to try to act and dress like all of the other kids. She starts dressind different and starts being called by her real name. That still doesn't work so she think of a plan. She wil win Arizona state oratorical contest. Then she will come back a winner and everyone will like her. Susan goes to the contest and wins like she said she would. On her way home she is so sure that there is going to be a party for because she was coming home a hero and she is going to be popular. This book is horrible, it is a popularity contest the whole time and she never gets popular.”

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Judging from the comments here and the misspelling this reviewer is obviously a kid. A kid who was probably forced to read this book as an assignment. It’s sad that this kid writes this off as a popularity contest gone bad. This reviewer completely ignored all the good things Stargirl did without the encouragement of her parents. Her only crime was to care about everyone not just those in her line of vision. This story is a good example how people fear those who are different. More kids today need to understand the importance of giving without expecting anything in return. They need to learn the spirit of community service or of the benefits of cheering for the other team.

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0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Remarkably Stupid Book, December 15, 2005
Reviewer: - See all my reviews

"Stargirl wants to make people happy, but she cannot tell, or does not care, if they are happy or not. Furthermore, most of her actions are indistinguishable from stalking, which alarms and angers the people around her.

Probably, Stargirl is mildly autistic, and this might yet have been an interesting book if Spinelli were trying to explore mental illness, but the book is self-contradictory on that score.

Keep this book away from young students."

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This reviewer can be nothing other than an adult. One who lacks imagination and heart. Looking at the books this person normally reviews it’s pretty darn obviously he doesn’t stray too far from fact and logic. Who ever said fiction had to have anything to do with fact and logic? The more heart one puts into their writing the better. I wonder why he insists on keeping this book away from students. Perhaps he's afraid the students may learn they are being trained to be sheeple and to live the life of conforminty - were everything and everyone looks the same. How boring that would be.

Individuality and being different should be a goal for all. Normal is relative to the person being described. I didn't really see anything abnormal about Stargirl, except maybe that she could play the ukelele, I don't know anyone who can play that instrument. Some people think I'm abnormal and or different but that's their problem.

I chose this link Random 1 because I imagine Stargirl working for this organization or one very much like it.

Random 1 is about two friends who travel the streets, in an old rusty pick-up truck, and randomly pick out people, find out their story, and give them a jump start with changing their lives. The jump start could be anything from getting them into rehab, finding them a new job, or replacing an old broken down air conditioner. The twist is, they have no money. They have a team of three people traveling with them in an RV that search out donors, employers looking for help, or anyone willing to help them accomplish their goal. It's the perfect job for someone like Stargirl.

These guys were notice by A & E television network and now have a show on that network. You can go to the website and listen to podcasts or read their message board. Find out ways they are helping people or what you can do to help others.

Reading is entering the secret lives of others. It's being a fly on the wall of people we don't know, and connecting to them in an emotional way. Reading can be about escape, it can be about learning from the experience of others.

I tend to get emotionally connected to what I’m reading. For example: A book that I read recently (a "memoir") I got so emotionally connected I hated the author by the time I finished his book. Since I have personal experience with the subject, I was personally offended many times throughout his ranting.


Thomas Lux wrote, "...the "barn" you say is a barn you know or knew." That barn I can see as my life. In the past, my barn was dilapidated and falling to pieces. It was a barn I despised. Today with the help of others the pieces of my barn have been put back together stronger, more competent, able to withstand the wind. So, when a person uses the word barn it could be viewed literally or metaphorically, it depends on the perspective of the reader. Perspective is why we have so many different interpretations of the same work. Not only do we see things different than others but our own perspectives change as we age.


January 31 Nicholas Basbane author of Every Book It’s Reader was interviewed on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show. It's a very interesting interview and relates very much to this topic. They discuss how the function of books are to get people to read actively.