Stargirl

What an uplifting and interesting book! So many books have some kind of tragedy in them, but this book held onto themes that ultimately uplift the reader. They certainly uplifted me. Essentially this book is about a new girl at Mica High School named Stargirl. As her name suggests, she is unique and unconventional which at first delights and then angers the student population. The main character falls for her. It's a sort of first love book with bigger ideas about conforming and being true to yourself. Heavy in a light way.

The three points:

1. Yoga. As I read the book certain passages that outline Stargirl's life philosophy struck me as totally vibing with yoga and meditative practices. So, of course, I loved it. Infusing the philosophy within the book allows for the appeal to adults as well as to younger readers. All in all, nice to see a meditation scene in the book. Hope the cosmic oneness flows into some young readers...

2. Simply written, but not simple. The book doesn't contain overwhelming vocabulary and certainly would appeal to middle school readers. The readability works to engage younger readers into different touchy subjects like "fitting in" and "finding yourself." Now, those can be extremely heavy subjects, but definitely digestible in this novel.

3. Strange lack of gender identification. I did not know until about 30 pages into the novel that the narrator was a boy. I thought he was a girl, and I don't know whether that's because I'm so used to and inclined to see narrators in young adult fiction as female, or if perhaps the character was written with gender neutrality in mind. Maybe I wasn't paying attention and missed a telling pronoun, but because this is written in first person, I doubt that. It's interesting I had this thought with Stargirl, because now I will probably be more in tune with gender issues, identification, and writing styles in future reads.

Either way, I recommend this one.