50 Fun Facts About Stargirl

Which instrument does Stargirl Caraway carry on her back and strum for classmates in the Mica High cafeteria?

Ukulele strumming becomes a craze at Mica High once Stargirl is popular, with classmates taking up the instrument to copy her.

What is the name of the pet rat that Stargirl brings to Mica High every day in her bag?

Cinnamon goes everywhere with Stargirl, who opens her appearance on the student TV show by asking the host if he would like to hold him.

What first name did Stargirl Caraway's parents give her, the one she uses again when she tries to fit in?

Susan is the name she takes back, along with makeup and hoop earrings, when Leo urges her to act like everyone else at Mica High.

Which habit of Stargirl's at Mica High basketball games turns the crowd's affection for her into boos?

Cheering for both teams comes naturally to Stargirl, who asks on the student TV show whether the visitors should not be happy too.

Which dance does Stargirl lead in a long line out of the Mica Country Club and into the desert?

The bunny hop pulls almost every couple at the spring dance into the line, though Hillari Kimble and her boyfriend refuse to join in.

How does Stargirl respond when Hillari Kimble slaps her across the face at the end of Mica High's spring dance?

A kiss on the cheek is her only reply, and after that night nobody from Mica High ever sees Stargirl again.

What unusual items does Leo Borlock, narrator of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, collect after a gift from his uncle?

Porcupine neckties reach Leo twice as anonymous gifts: one soon after he turns fourteen, and another fifteen years after Stargirl disappears.

What is thrown in Stargirl's face as Mica High's basketball season ends with a playoff defeat?

A tomato hits her while she is still performing with her back to the court, and the Mica High crowd laughs and applauds.

Which singer, a past winner of America's Got Talent, made her acting debut as Stargirl in the 2020 film?

Grace VanderWaal was 12 when she won the talent show singing her own songs, and she played Stargirl again in a 2022 sequel.

What does Stargirl add to or take from the tiny 'happy wagon' in her bedroom to track her mood?

Pebbles go in when she is happy and come out when she is not, and as her attempt to be ordinary fails Leo finds only two left.

What is the name of the student interview show that Leo Borlock directs at Mica High in Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl?

Hot Seat puts each guest before a panel of student jurors, and Stargirl's episode turns so hostile that it is never broadcast.

In which state is Mica, the fictional desert town where Jerry Spinelli set his novel Stargirl?

Arizona supplies the desert where Stargirl goes to meditate, and most adults in Mica work for a single company, MicaTronics.

How was Stargirl Caraway educated before she arrived at Mica High as a tenth grader?

She was homeschooled by her mother, who brought her one day a week to learn from Archie Brubaker, a retired paleontologist.

What does Stargirl deliberately drop on sidewalks and benches for strangers, especially children, to find?

Loose change is something Stargirl says she dislikes carrying, so she leaves coins where a child might be thrilled to spot them.

Which streaming service released the 2020 film of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, directed by Julia Hart?

Disney+ carried the film with no cinema run, months after the service launched, and a sequel followed there in 2022.

Which novel about an orphan in the divided town of Two Mills won Stargirl author Jerry Spinelli the Newbery Medal?

Maniac Magee took the medal in 1991, and Wringer later added a Newbery Honor to Spinelli's shelf.

What name does Archie Brubaker give the towering cactus in his backyard, which visitors in Stargirl must greet?

Señor Saguaro is close to death, with elf owls nesting inside, yet Archie talks to the cactus as he would to a person.

Who is Leo Borlock's best friend in Stargirl, the on-camera host of the interview show the two boys created?

Kevin Quinlan asks the questions while Leo directs the cameras, and fifteen years later he is still living in Mica, selling insurance.

What does Leo Borlock find tucked in his notebook the day after Mica High's playoff loss, sent by Stargirl?

A valentine had sat unnoticed in the notebook for days, and Leo casually asks his best friend whether he got a card too; he had not.

Which ninth grader is the only student waiting to welcome Stargirl home from the state oratorical finals?

Dori Dilson was also the first to share Stargirl's cafeteria table, and she pedals her friend to the spring dance wearing a tuxedo.

Which Mica High trendsetter in Stargirl tells the student TV show his ambition is to be a magazine cover model?

Wayne Parr names GQ magazine as his role model, and after graduation he is last heard talking of joining the Coast Guard.

Which spring dance at the Mica Country Club does Leo Borlock skip rather than invite Stargirl?

The Ocotillo Ball goes on without him, though Leo rides over after dark and watches the lantern-lit party from a distance.

From which state did Leo Borlock's family move to Mica when he was twelve, in Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl?

Pennsylvania is also the author's home state: Jerry Spinelli was born in Norristown, and the sequel sends Stargirl to live there.

What desert bird gives its shape to the plywood bulletin board in the Mica High courtyard in Stargirl?

A roadrunner outline frames the board where a painted bedsheet later announces to all of Mica High that Stargirl loves Leo.

Which patriotic text is Stargirl said to reword in her own way, leading one student juror to call her a traitor?

The Pledge of Allegiance in her version turns up pinned to the courtyard bulletin board, and at first classmates happily copy it.

Which family occasion does Stargirl attend uninvited, so that Anna Grisdale's mother throws her out?

A funeral for Anna's grandfather, a man Stargirl had never met, finds her weeping at the graveside, and Mrs. Grisdale orders her out of the lunch that follows.

What anonymous gift for young Danny Pike, home from hospital with a broken leg, is traced to Stargirl?

A new bicycle arrives after Danny crashes his old one into a mailbox, but his family, unsure who sent it, throws it out.

What is the nickname of the Mica High basketball squad whose winning streak sours the fans in Stargirl?

The Electrons, named for the town's electronics industry, breeze through the regular season unbeaten, and Mica's once-indifferent fans turn into fanatics.

According to Archie Brubaker, what does Stargirl Caraway's mother do for a living?

Costume designer for films is Mrs. Caraway's trade, while her husband works at MicaTronics like most of Mica.

Leo Borlock hopes to direct television; what does Stargirl tell him she wants to drive for a living?

A silver lunch truck is her dream, and she pictures owning a whole fleet that astonishes working people with the food on offer.

What name does retired paleontologist Archie Brubaker give his prized 60-million-year-old rodent skull in Stargirl?

Barney is Archie's yardstick for what is real, and on his last outing with Leo he seals the skull back inside a desert rock.

What does Archie Brubaker call the students who gather at his home on Saturday mornings?

Loyal Order of the Stone Bone meetings range over any subject at all, and Archie insists the children call him by his first name.

Which of these names did Stargirl give herself, according to Archie Brubaker, before she became Stargirl?

Pocket Mouse came first, followed by Mudpie and Hullygully, each dropped once she felt she had worn it out.

Who takes Stargirl home after Mica High's cheerleaders and players trick her into missing the bus at Red Rock?

A custodian from Red Rock gives her the ride, and next day she accepts her classmates' claim that it was all a mistake.

In chapter 9 of Stargirl, Leo likens Mica High's awakened students to which desert creatures roused by rain?

Mud frogs sleep underground with slowed heartbeats until a downpour frees them, and in Leo's comparison Stargirl is the rain.

What is Stargirl secretly compiling for Peter Sinkowitz, the small boy who lives across the street from her?

A scrapbook biography records Peter's everyday life in candid photographs and keepsakes, down to scraps of paper he has dropped.

When Stargirl meditates at her enchanted place in the desert, what does she picture wiping her away bit by bit?

An eraser is her mental trick for becoming nothing, and she tells Leo that thoughts are the hardest part to rub out.

To which religious community's practice does Archie Brubaker compare the silent treatment given to Stargirl and Leo?

The Amish, Archie explains, shun members who do serious wrong, with even the offender's family joining in until there is repentance.

After Stargirl has gone, Archie Brubaker shows Leo her secret 'office' in which part of his own property?

A toolshed held her craft supplies, a calendar marked with dates to remember, and files on people all over Mica, Leo included.

What keepsake does Archie Brubaker give his young visitors, one Stargirl wears to the spring dance?

A fossil necklace marks a child as one of Archie's circle, and Stargirl pairs hers with a rich yellow gown and hoop skirt.

To which state have Stargirl and her family moved, as Archie Brubaker tells Leo after the spring dance?

Minnesota is where Stargirl originally came from, so the Caraways' sudden move takes her back to her first home.

Which extinct bird, mentioned by a teacher on the road to Phoenix, gives Stargirl's winning speech its title?

The moa stood far taller than the hunters who wiped it out, and Stargirl wonders if a mockingbird she has just heard was echoing one.

What occupies the site of Stargirl's enchanted place in the desert by the time of Leo Borlock's later visits?

An elementary school has been built there, and by then Archie and his giant cactus are gone too.

Which school knocks Mica High out of the state basketball playoffs in Stargirl, one round after Ron Kovac's injury?

Glendale has strong players at every position, and as defeat becomes certain Mica's fans weep, jeer and blame the officials.

On Mica High's interview show in Stargirl, what is the handheld camera called, in honour of a keen former student?

Chico was a student who worked the close-up camera with such enthusiasm that the crew kept his name on it after he had gone.

Which faculty adviser halts the taping of Stargirl's interview and destroys the recording so it never airs?

Mr. Robineau later called her opening pantomime the show's greatest moment, though the student jury turned on her minutes after it.

Which Breaking Bad cast member plays Leo's mentor, Archie Brubaker, in the 2020 film of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl?

Giancarlo Esposito, the crime drama's Gus Fring, plays an Archie who runs a paleontology camp in the film, which was shot in New Mexico.

Jerry Spinelli's 2007 sequel to Stargirl takes the form of which kind of writing, kept up like a diary?

A letter, billed as the world's longest, carries the sequel, which follows Stargirl in a new town where she is lonely at first.

On the Monday she drops her ordinary act, what smiley treats does Stargirl hand out in the Mica High cafeteria?

Cookies with happy faces go to every table, and Hillari Kimble takes off a shoe and smashes hers with it.

Which flower, painted on Stargirl's canvas bag, later gives its name to a Mica High club devoted to daily kind acts?

Sunflower club members promise one kind deed a day, a custom that takes root at Mica High in the years after Stargirl disappears.