Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for Jerry Spinelli's "Stargirl"
    A Study Guide for Jerry Spinelli's "Stargirl"
    A Study Guide for Jerry Spinelli's "Stargirl"
    Ebook49 pages30 minutes

    A Study Guide for Jerry Spinelli's "Stargirl"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Jerry Spinelli's "Stargirl," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJun 27, 2016
    ISBN9781535834056
    A Study Guide for Jerry Spinelli's "Stargirl"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Jerry Spinelli's "Stargirl"

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Out Now! Home Entertainment

      Apr 2, 2020

      Out April 8 The gang is back but the game has changed. As the players return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own, they discover that nothing is as they expect. They will have to brave parts unknown, from hot deserts to the snowy mountains, in order

      1 min read

    • Article

      Out Now!

      Oct 4, 2023

      Settle in for a movie filled with action, adventure, and a touch of heart! When the children of the world's greatest secret agents unwittingly help a powerful game developer unleash a computer virus that gives him control of all technology, they must

      2 min read

    • Article

      Check It Out!

      Aug 19, 2021

      Check It Out!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Billy Barf and the Red Fox

      Jul 18, 2020

      Billy Barf and the Red Fox
      3 min read

    • Article

      Home Entertainment

      Dec 5, 2019

      The flightless angry birds and the scheming green pigs take their fued to the next level. When a new threat emerges that puts both Bird and Pig Island in danger, the birds team up with the piggies to call a truce and form an unlikely superteam to sav

      1 min read

    • Article

      I’ve Got A Golden Ticket

      Jan 18, 2024

      I’ve Got A Golden Ticket
      3 min read

    • Article

      Out Now! Television

      Jun 6, 2019

      Lauren stars as Molly in the Netflix Original Series, No Good Nick. • Her birthday is July 28, 2004 and she was born in Los Angeles, California. • She appeared as Ruby in season four of Disney Channel's Liv and Maddie. • She loves carrots and eats th

      1 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Aug 19, 2019

      Kya is just five when she watches her mother, carrying a packed suitcase and wearing her fake alligator high-heeled shoes, walk out on her alcoholic husband, her four children and the shack they all live in. One by one the remaining children follow s

      4 min read

    • Article

      Joy Of Reading

      Dec 10, 2021

      Wanda is excited to be going to the hair salon and knows exactly which hairdo she wants – but the hair stylist insists on trying to straighten her hair. The white chemical she applies stings like crazy but when Wanda complains, she’s told that she ne

      4 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Jul 2, 2021

      This is the seventh book in the series about seven girls adopted and named for the stars of The Seven Sisters constellation in Greek Mythology. Their adoptive father has died and the girls of the previous six books, now armed with the knowledge of th

      2 min read

    • Article

      Fresh Right Now

      Jan 15, 2024

      The Hunger Games prequel was so moving, and the music made it all that more special! DW if you haven’t seen it (this is a movie for older TGs), coz this collection will make you feel that you have! Some songs may be familiar, like ‘The Hanging Tree’,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Searching for Complexity: Motherhood in Fiction

      Jul 19, 2017

      I’m on a quest to surround myself with complex mothers. I’m going to seek them in novels, in stories I can enter during months when my own complexity seems to shine brighter. The women I’ll turn to can’t hear me when I talk back to them, but they can

      7 min read

    • Article

      Total Girl‘s Reading Corner Cool books for every TG!

      Jan 16, 2022

      School’s out and Olive can’t wait to have the best time at camp with her BFF Willow. While Olive is quick to make new friends, Willow on the other hand is struggling. A new place, new people, being away from home? We totally get it! The girls begin t

      1 min read

    • Article

      Elise Juska on Finally Learning the True Story of Her Namesake

      Jun 12, 2019

      The novelist on her grandfather's very unusual relationship arrangement—a 52-year engagement—and how it led, in a roundabout way, to her own name. The post Elise Juska on Finally Learning the True Story of Her Namesake appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Dentistry’s Problem Children

      May 8, 2017

      Dentistry’s Problem Children
      11 min read

    • Article

      From Glacier Babies To A Barbie Debate: 7 Great Global Stories You Might Have Missed

      Dec 28, 2023

      Here are our editors' picks for stories from 2023 that we wish more people would see: from an elephant safari for teens to mating glaciers in Pakistan to a debate about Barbie's skin tone in India.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Reader Reviews

      Feb 6, 2019

      BY CATHERINE FISHER Firefly Press £6.99 REVIEW by Liza, agethirteen I have so much to say about this unforgettable novel. Set in Wales, in Victorian times, our main protagonist, Seren, leaves her dismal orphanage to visit Plas-y-Fran. Litt

      6 min read

    • Article

      Out Now! Books

      Dec 3, 2020

      Unicorn Academy is a school on Unicorn Island where you meet your own unicorn and have amazing adventures together. Phoebe and Shimmer are having a brilliant time at Unicorn Academy. But on a school trip to the coast, a freak weather event puts every

      1 min read

    • Article

      Out Now! On The Screen

      Oct 7, 2021

      Set in a magical land called Kaleidoscopia, Rainbow Rangers follows the adventures of seven nine-year-old girls who are guardians of both nature and their land. Each of the girls, Rosie Redd, Bonnie Blueberry, Indigo Allfruit, Anna Banana, Mandarin O

      2 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Sep 1, 2023

      By Nadia Shireen Worrying about “what ifs” has given Geoffrey the tummy jitters. How can he get rid of them? Complete with comic deep-breathing advice and a Very Useful Guide to Worries, this follow-up to Barbara Throws a Wobbler confirms Shireen as

      1 min read

    • Article

      Out Now! On The Screen

      Mar 2, 2022

      Auntie Opal and her niece Nina love to have cosy nights in together. They usually have sleepovers but this one is different. While reading a book of fairy tales, they accidentally bring the mythical Erax right out from the pages of the book. These ko

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Jerry Spinelli's "Stargirl"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Jerry Spinelli's "Stargirl" - Gale

      14

      Stargirl

      Jerry Spinelli

      2000

      Introduction

      Written for adolescent readers, Stargirl (2000) is an allegorical tale of the conflict between conformity and individuality. An unconventional new student who calls herself Stargirl captures the heart of the shy Leo Borlock and the imagination of her classmates at Mica Area High School. All too soon, however, Stargirl's enthusiasm crosses unseen lines, bringing on the scorn of her peers. Although she remains blissfully unaware of the collective cold shoulder they give her, Leo finds himself caught in the middle, unsure of where his loyalties lie.

      Named a 2001 Book of the Year by Book Sense, a New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Book of the Year, and an American Library Association (ALA) Best Book, Stargirl is one of Jerry Spinelli's best-loved novels.

      Author Biography

      Jerry Spinelli was born February 1, 1941, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. His first career aspiration was to be a cowboy. He states on his website:

      One day in second grade I dressed up in my cowboy outfit, complete with golden cap pistols and spurs on my boots. I went to school that way. It was not Halloween. When the teacher asked if I would like to do something for the class, I got up and sang I Have Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle.

      He later set his sights on baseball, which he features in a number of his books. During a high-school football game, he wrote a poem that was subsequently published in his hometown newspaper. Spinelli identifies the day of its publication as the day he decided to become a writer.

      He wrote his first short stories and edited the literary magazine at Gettysburg College, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After attending writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University, he took a job as a men's wear editor for a department store, writing during his free time. He published his first novel, Space Station Seventh Grade, fifteen years later. The novel, like the four unpublished manuscripts he had written previously, was initially aimed at an adult audience but features an adolescent. When a children's publisher signed on for the book, Spinelli found his calling. He has since published thirty books for children and young adults. Spinelli is most famous for his fifth book, Maniac Magee (1990), which won the prestigious Newbery Award in 1991. His 1997 novel Wringer was a Newbery Honor Book. He published Stargirl in 2000 and a sequel, Love, Stargirl, in 2007.

      Spinelli is married and has six children and twenty-one grandchildren. He has noted that, in addition to his own childhood, his children have provided great source material for his fiction. Like Stargirl, he has also owned pet rats. They're smart and friendly and make terrific pets, he declares on his website.

      Plot Summary

      Porcupine Necktie

      In this prologue, the book's narrator, eleventh grader Leo Borlock, relates that when he was a child, his uncle wore a necktie that had a porcupine on it. Leo adored the tie, and when his family moved from Pennsylvania

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1