Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Stargirl
	Author:	Spinelli, Jerry
	Date Published:	2001
	Genre:	Real Life
	Grade Level:	6 - 8
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
I'm Leo…Leo Borlock. I collect Porcupine neckties. I have three now…I mean, how many porcupine neckties are there anyway?! I got my first one when I was little. My uncle knew I didn't want to leave my friends and gave me his porcupine necktie when we moved out west when I was little. My second one . . . Well, have you ever had someone put an ad in the paper for your birthday?! Lucky you. My mom put one in on one of my birthdays, and said that I liked porcupine neckties. So, on my birthday, we found a box at the front door addressed to me. Inside was a--you guessed it--porcupine necktie!! Hand painted! With no mention of whom it was from. We were NOT a hotbed of nonconformity. Everyone at my high school wore pretty much the same clothes, talked the same way, ate the same stuff, and so on. Anyone who somehow mistakenly distinguished themselves would quickly snap back into place, like a rubber band. It was on my first day of school in eleventh grade. "Have you seen her?!" "She can't be real!" "She must be a fake, a plant by the administration." Finally, I asked my best friend Kevin "Who?" "You haven't seen her?" he asked. "Haven't seen WHO?!" "Stargirl!" "Stargirl?!" It was lunchtime before I first saw her. She sat all alone that first day. And when she was done, she picked up her ukulele and wandered around the room playing it. That first day she wore a long, floor-brushing pioneer dresses like our grandmothers might have worn. She was as likely to show up in a flapper dress, kimono, buckskin, or miniskirt with green stockings with ladybug and butterfly pins crawling up one leg. Somehow, she always seemed to know when it was somebody's birthday and would sing "Happy Birthday" to them. She was different, and refreshing, and for the most part, we began to accept her. Not Hilari though . . . no, not that Hillary! Hilari with an "i." Hilari couldn't stand Stargirl. Well, the next day was Hilari's birthday, and at lunch Hilari walked up to Stargirl. "Stargirl!?" "Yes, Hilari?" "You know tomorrow is my birthday?" "Yes Hilari, I know tomorrow is your birthday." "I don't want you singing Happy Birthday to me on my birthday." And, Hilari stormed out of the lunchroom. Well you can just imagine what happened the next day at lunch. Everyone was in the lunchroom whether they ate at home, or at a fast-food restaurant, or whatever. Everyone wanted to see what would happen. You could cut the tension with a knife. Finally, Stargirl finished lunch, picked up her ukulele and started walking around the room playing it. She paused behind Hilari . . . then continued wandering around the room until she stopped in front of . . . ME. And she sang, "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear HILARI, Happy Birthday to you." OOOOHHHH!!! Hilari stormed out of the room! You could almost see the steam rising from her head she was so angry. Everyone else cracked up in laughter. Because Stargirl had kept her word to Hilari, technically, but had managed to sing to her anyway. Kevin's the one that asked her what everyone was thinking: "Why him?" Stargirl looked at me mischievously while tilting her head, tugged my earlobe and said, "He's cute." She likes me! Me, Leo!