The
characters of Spinelli’s novels are very captivating because they address the
common feeling and anxiety that every schoolchild has of finding friends and conforming
to peer pressure. Moreover, Spinelli’s characters, Maniac Magee, Susan Stargirl
Caraway, and Palmer LaRue (Wringer) share the same mantra of being distinct
from their social peers. At the same time that they are not considered pariahs,
they confront difficulties adapting and behaving to their peers’ expectations.
This certainly resonate to the middle school students who struggle to be accepted
by a group just like Stargirl did, and/or to others who, just like Palmer LaRue,
engage in activities that contradict with their principles because they want to
be accepted by a larger group. These characters become empowering examples for
students to find their own voice, their own path in spite of others’ choices. I
believe that these are very engaging books, which speak directly to the
anxieties and dilemmas of everyday middle school students, and as such, are
excellent choices for literature circles, author study, or read-alouds.
BY JERRY SPINELLI
"...just be careful not to get the facts mixed up with the truth."- Maniac Magee quote
“You be you and I'll be me, today and today and today, and let's trust the future to tomorrow. Let the stars keep track of us. Let us ride our own orbits and trust that they will meet. May our reunion be not a finding but a sweet collision of destinies! Love and Love and Love Again, Stargirl.” - Love, Stargirl
“She was illusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow
of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly,
but the pin merely went through and away she flew.” - Stargirl
"He did not want to be a wringer. This was one of the first things he had learned about himself. He could not have said exactly when he learned it, but it was very early. And more than early, it was deep inside. In the stomach like hunger." - Wringer
“She was illusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow
of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly,
but the pin merely went through and away she flew.” - Stargirl
"He did not want to be a wringer. This was one of the first things he had learned about himself. He could not have said exactly when he learned it, but it was very early. And more than early, it was deep inside. In the stomach like hunger." - Wringer
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