Are stargirl and love stargirl different

The result is a sort of Fresno Salaam Bombay without the pockets of humanity that gave the original its charm. This unrelenting portrait is unsparing in squalid details: The glue sniffers, gangs, bums, casual knifings, filth, and stench are in the forefront of a life without much hope``Laundry wept from the lines, the faded flags of poor, ignorant, unemployable people.'' Soto plays the tale straightthe only sign of a ``happy'' ending is in Eddie's joining the Navy. Everything he tries turns soura stint doing yard work ends when his boss's truck is stolen on Eddie's watchand life is a daily battle for survival. His aunt and friends want him to avenge the recent murder of his cousin, but Eddie just wants to find a way out.

In bleak sentences of whispered beauty, Eddie tells how he dropped out of vocational college and is attempting to get by with odd jobs. 12-14)Д®ddie, a young Mexican-American scraping by in the mean streets of Fresno, California, counts four dead relatives and one dead friend in the opening, in-your-face lines of this new novel from Soto (Snapshots from the Wedding, p. The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parentвЂ™s severe illness thereвЂ™s not much here to challenge most readers-driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together. She also meets a boy with a mysterious past their brief romance and other events combine to lift Stargirl out of her doldrums, as she reconciles her feelings.

In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, BellyвЂ™s mother, provides support for her friend-if not, unfortunately, for the children-in SusannahвЂ™s losing battle with breast cancer. BellyвЂ™s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friendвЂ™s flirtations during one summerвЂ™s visit, a first date. Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her motherвЂ™s best friendвЂ™s two sons. Stargirl, never one with an inclination to conform, empathizes with the outcasts, making many of them her new friends. She notices the agoraphobic neighbor, the seemingly homeless young boy, and others who do not fit in easily. Stargirl Caraway explores her new neighborhood with an eye for the unusual. 'The many readers who loved the first book will embrace this sequel.HanвЂ™s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly. Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli About the Book. Anyone who survived or is enduring the teenage years will repeatedly recognize him or herself in these pages-and find the book hard to put down.' - St. 'Anyone who loved Jerry Spinelli's beautiful, poignant young adult novel Stargirl is in for a treat with his latest novel. As charming and unique as its sensitive, nonconformist heroine.' - School Library Journal 'Humor, graceful writing, lively characters, and important lessons about life will make this a hit with fans of Stargirl.' - Kirkus Reviews, Starred

Are stargirl and love stargirl different