Day 6

So today I am supposed to write about a book that I loved when I was a young adult. There were many of these because that was when I really started getting into reading. Sure, I read before, but I didn't swallow books whole like I did back then. This was the age when I started having all-nighters just lying in bed and reading until the sun rose. Those were the kind of all-nighters that I loved, far better than the university variety which involved staying up and studying or writing essays until the sun rose and it was time for your first lecture. Anyway, because I figured that a lot of the books that I read at this age would come up elsewhere in this challenge, I decided to pick one in particular that I thoroughly enjoyed but many people have probably never heard of.

I can remember very clearly what drew me to Stargirl. It was the bright pink, very simplistic cover and the price tag that read only R11. I knew that Mom couldn't say no to letting me have the book at that price, and of course she didn't. And then it sat on my bookshelf for a long while without my bothering to pick it up. I had other books to read first. One day, my friend Natasha came over and saw the book. She had nothing to read at the time, so she asked if she could borrow it, which I let her do without hesitation. Natasha was like my library at that point - I was constantly borrowing books from her (she had all the best ones after all), so when I had a chance to pay back the favour, I leaped at it. And she absolutely adored it. Within two days she had returned the book to me and went on a mission to find her own copy. Of course, by this point I wanted to know what all the fuss was about and opened up the book myself. And then couldn't close it again!

Stargirl is a wonderful story for young girls about a girl who doesn't quite conform to what people think she should be. Fine, she is downright strange. She prances around the school halls being what some people see as overly happy, and for awhile her individuality is praised. For awhile, people look up to her and admire her and she becomes the centre of attention. People start wanting to be like her. Which ends up taking away from the individuality a little bit, because how can you be an individual when you are the same as everyone else? Anyway, the acceptance doesn't last for long, and soon people start turning against her when they realise that she really doesn't conform and is never going to. The whole book is seen from the eyes of her "boyfriend" and the way that he sways with public opinion.

Basically, I think this book is a wonderful example for teenage girls, the morals of the story being that it is better to be an individual than to conform to peer pressure. It may not be one of the best books that I read in those years, but it is certainly one that stands out in my mind and is still lining my bookshelf today in the hopes that one day my own little girl can read it.