I’ve never been a huge Spinelli fan - I tend to find his books filled with too much eccentricity for no particular reason (the exception is Space Station Seventh Grade, which I kind of loved and which felt considerably less heavy-handed and more nuanced than, say, Maniac Magee). Stargirl is pretty much the same story: I guess I understand who she is and why she is, but I think I would have reacted to her the same way Leo did - falling in love with her and then hating her for being so perfectly delicious all the damn time.

P.S. I did enjoy Spinelli’s “Crash.”

P.P.S. Liz today referred to the glorification of Stargirl as “fetishising the eccentric,” which I think is an apt way to put it.