Stargirl

Today, as my class quietly worked on Christmas themed activities, I finished reading aloud the novel Stargirl, written by Jerry Spinelli.  I wanted to finish the novel before the holidays in order to start a new read aloud book (The Maestro, by Tim Wynne-Jones) in January that would compliment a novel study of Holes by Louis Sachar that we recently started.  I finished reading the last line of Stargirl and put down the book on my desk.  After a few quiet moments, most of my students lifted their heads to look at me and demanded, "Finish the book!".  I replied, "I did!".

Though I had thought the students had not enjoyed listening to the novel, I was wrong.  While their demeanor suggested an "I don't care" attitude, they actually absorbed the story and wanted to know what happened to the main characters of Leo and Susan (Stargirl).  The story is written in first person from Leo's perspective.  While in grade 10, Leo and Stargirl develop an interesting relationship, become "boyfriend and girlfriend", then sort of "break up" (it's more than that, as the novel is about how one person can change a whole community, but you can read the novel for yourself!).  The ending of the story, set 15 years later, hints at a re-connection of sorts, but that is all.  My students wanted a tidy ending for the story, but it was not to be.  This made them think for a bit, then we had a short discussion about what might have happened next to the main characters.  I'm glad the ending of the novel was not necessarily a "happy" one.  I found the ending to The Maestro to be open-ended, too.  I this hope will lead to a bigger discussion in a couple months time about story endings and how even our own lives do not necessarily have all the loose ends tied up.

I did mention that there is a kind of sequel (side-quel?) to Stargirl, written from the perspective of Stargirl, and some of my students asked me to find a copy to add to our classroom library.  Which, as a teacher, makes me smile inside and think, "Gotcha!".