How important is your individuality?

Lots to think about when you read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. The new kid at school goes by the name Stargirl, and she's something else - wears odd clothes, sings "Happy Birthday" while strumming her ukulele, and doesn't really seem to care about others' opinions. After not knowing what to think of her, the students gradually accept her eccentricities and think she's okay. But when she does the unforgiveable - showing compassion to an injured player from an opposing school's basketball team - she is totally shunned. When her friend Leo tries to explain "normal" behavior, she shows up at school with a total make-over: new clothes, look, attitude, and eerily like everyone else. Will the students stop the shunning? Can she keep her true personality buried? And what's more important to Leo, the friendship of Stargirl or the friendship of the others? This excellent story would be great for a book club discussion.