Wintergirls Trailer

Go Ask Alice

Sparks, Beatrice, ed. Go Ask Alice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971. Print.

Disclaimer: The protagonist of this novel is fifteen-year-old girl. Some people call her Alice, but I believe that would be a mistake. At one point in the text, the girl comes across another girl named Alice in the same situation. This interaction takes only a few lines of the text, but is important to the overall theme of the book. That being said, I do not feel right calling the protagonist Alice, as she is a character in the book. I believe it would be a mistake to do so. Therefore, we will call her Anon, short for Anonymous.

Go Ask Alice, a novel based on the diary of a fifteen-year-old drug user, relays the highs and lows of an anonymous girl. Set in the 1970s, the girl--we will call her Anon for the sake of sanity--feels that she does not fit in at her school and keeps a diary to record her thoughts. Soon she starts the diary her family moves because her father, a professor, starts teaching at a new school. She does not feel as though she fits in at the new school either and gets to come back to her hometown for the summer. Anon stays with her grandparents for the summer where, at a party, she is introduced to LSD. After her first encounter with the drug she beings to experiment with other drugs and finally runs away from home. As the book goes on, she runs away from home once more before she quits using drugs. Eventually, Anon unknowingly takes acid which sends her to the hospital and then to an asylum. She comes back home, decides to stop keeping a diary and dies three weeks later. The fact that this is a diary written by a fifteen-year-old means that there are not any themes or symbols in the traditional since. Anon clearly struggles with religion and her she will fit in now that she has fallen from her “square” lifestyle. 

Anon fits perfectly in Erikson's adolescent crisis of identity. Occurring between ages twelve and eighteen--Anon is fifteen going on sixteen--in Erikson's Identity vs. Confusion stage an adolescent begins to question how they fit in to their environment. This includes both home life and school life. She never seems to know who she is or how she fits in unless she is using drugs. When she is intoxicated, her senses are heightened, but she is inhibited. At the height of her drug use there seems to be a lull in the constant questioning of her place in the world. However, when she begins to fit in with the “square” kids she begins to over-think all of her actions. When her piano teacher invites her to play at an “outstanding student” concert Anon writes: “I wonder if the kids will think it’s a stupid thing to do” (203). Her crisis of identity continues until the very end of the book when she begins to feel that she is fitting in and has people who really care about her. Then she tells her diary that she will not be getting another one. Anon claims that diaries are good for young people, but as people mature they talk about their problems. Three weeks later she died of a drug overdose. During those three weeks, we do not know if she fell off the preverbal wagon or if it was an accident. Either way, the happy ending is destroyed and it seems that she did not find herself in all her trials. 

Not surprisingly, as Anon goes on a roller coaster her interior monologue changes as her situation changes. It does seem that she can have a very positive outlook on life, but in contrast her outlook can be very bleak. Like any teenager, her emotions are fluctuating from one extreme to another. Sharon A. Stringer claims in her book Conflict and Connection: The Psychology of Young Adult Literature: “Psychologist emphasize that adolescence is not a period of “storm and stress.” Yet, like us, teenagers face important conflicts. Any clash inside the head influences the connection between thought and action. It can reflect the struggle to gain psychological strength as teenagers try to become their own person” (41). Anon, however, does experience “storm and stress” by placing herself in adult situations. When she is in San Francisco--the first place she runs away to--she must find a way to survive along with her friend, Chris. When she returns home, her parents accept this as her way of asserting her independence. However, later she will leave again. Anon’s range of emotional highs and lows give greater insight into her identity crisis. While she wants to please her parents, at times she criticizes their actions. These critics arise when she is sliding back into her old habits. In the end, it does seem that she has found some sort of place in the world at  large. She hopes to be a social worker, has friends, and a potential boyfriend. However, the question remains: how much of that was truly fulfilling for her? Her death three weeks later suggests that she died without an identity resolution. 

Clearly, Go Ask Alice is the only book by this author, but similar books edited by Beatrice Sparks include (Click on the book name for a link to the book's summary):

Annie's Baby

It Happened to Nancy

Jay's Journal

Kim

Lucy in the Sky

 

Stargirl: Summary & Themes

Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. New York: Knopf, 2000. Print.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli is a story about a girl who is different from everyone else. She comes to Leo Brolock’s school on the first day of his junior year. Stargirl, as she calls herself, is completely focused on others. Mica High School’s football program had been failing, until one night when Stargirl takes the field. She wows everyone with by dancing and cheering for the Electrons. Soon, Stargirl is asked to join the cheerleading squad. However, when she starts to cheer for the opposing basketball team the students question her loyalty. Leo’s best friend, Kevin, interviews Stargirl for their school’s monthly program, “The Hot Seat.” This interviews solidifies Stargirl’s position as an outsider. As the story unfolds, Stargirl confesses her feelings for Leo and finds that he likes her as well. Soon, the two become a couple, but Leo is meet with resistance from those around him. For the once popular Leo, being an outsider becomes too much for him. He must decide whether to stay with Stargirl or regain his popularity. 

One prominent theme throughout Stargirl is that of individuality and optimism. Stargirl, herself, is completely different from everyone else in Mica. She is consistently cheerful and her positivity attracts those around her. It should come as no surprise that a key symbol in Stargirl is that of “electrons,” which is Mica High’s team mascot. Electrons are, of course, negatively charged, but attracted to a positive charge. Stargirl is that positive charge. This is arguable, but Señor Saguaro seems to also be a motif of the text. He is Archie’s cactus. Archie is an older man who teaches the students of Mica on the weekends. Señor Saguaro survives, like any cactus, even in the harshest of conditions. In fact, he thrives. Stargirl also thrives, even as those around her root for her to fail. Certainly, Spinelli’s main theme is that of being true to yourself.

Roberta Seelinger Trites asserts in her book Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature: “Identity politics are a social construction. That is, they are defined by discourse, not biology. Social constructions play a determining role in how we perceive ourselves politically” (46). This is very true for Leo, Stargirl, and another character, Hilari. As Leo develops a relationship with Stargirl, he finds that he loses almost all his friends. As he loses his friends, he beings to lose his identity in the school. Soon, Leo begins to question his relationship with Stargirl. Although he enjoys his time with her and certainly has feelings for her, he longs for championship outside of the relationship. His role is no longer defined by what he does at school, but who he is with. 

Spinelli challenges these “identity politics” by creating a character who, by her lack of pervious social experiences, has no knowledge of social construction. She is joyful and unaffected by the opinion of others. When Leo challenges her to become like the other girls in school she concedes, only to find that this unfulfilling. As a result, she decides to go back to the person she was at the beginning of the novel. 

Hilari is the quintessential electron. She is full of negative energy. When Stargirl starts school, Hillari makes up a rumor dubbed,“Hilari’s Hypothesis” claiming that Stargirl is a plant by the school to promote school spirit. As Stargirl popularity grows, Hilari challenges her habits. She warns Stargirl against singing “Happy Birthday” to her. Stargirl meets the challenge by singing it not to Hilari, but to Leo. By the end of the story, Hilari can’t find her place in the school. Once the most popular girl, she now seems to have no friends. Spinelli’s characters all search for identity in school, except for Stargirl, who knows exactly where she belongs from the beginning.

Jerry Spinelli’s Book List:

Blue Ribbon Blues

Crash

Do the Funky Pickle

Eggs

Fourth Grade Rats

Jake and Lily

Jason and Marceline

Knots in My Yo-Yo String

Loser

Love, Stargirl

Maniac Magee

Milkweed

Picklemania!

Report to the Principal’s Office

Smiles to Go

Space Station Seventh Grade

Stargirl

The Bathwater Gang

The Library Card

There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock

There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock/Wheel Trouble

Third Grade Angels

Tooter Pepperday

Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush?

Who Ran My Underwear Up the Flagpole?

Wringer

Zoomer and Other Stories

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

I have added a book trailer created by me (with the help of google search for images). Also, there is a Chem4Kids link which focuses on Electrons (a major motif in Stargirl). And of course, as always, a book list for the author by Scholastic!

Book Trailer:

Extras:

Jerry Spinelli Book List

Chem4Kids-Electrons!

_Wintergirls_ Extras

I'm including a few extra links that I felt were important to understand Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls. A few of the links are "Pro-Ana" websites. Please keep in mind that I am in no way endorsing this behavior, in fact I am very much discouraging it. However, I believe, that as teachers it is important to see what is out there that our students could get a hold of. Knowing what we are up against is one way to be prepared. I also encourage you (if you have a Pinterest account) to log in and search for "Thinspiration." A part of you will be amazed. I am also including a link to the Scholastics website with a complete list of Anderson's books with reading level. Besides that I will post a link to a poem from a Poetry Slam that I feel is very relevant to the book and could be used in the classroom to introduce Wintergirls and it's themes.

Pro-Ana Websites:

Diet Blog

Pro-ana Forum

Scholastic's Book List:

Laurie Halse Anderson

"Shrinking Women" by Lily Myers:

Laurie Halse Anderson’s _Wintergirls_

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Wintergirls. New York: Viking, 2009. Print.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is about an eighteen year old girl, Lia, who struggles with anorexia. When her estranged best friend, Cassie, dies alone in a hotel room, Lia must find out how she died and why Cassie called her thirty-three times that night. Soon Lia is visited by the ghost of Cassie, this triggers a major relapse into anorexia and cutting. Lia’s parents become worried and her mother asks her to move back into her house and out of her father and step-mother’s house. All this becomes too much for Lia and she enters into rehab for the third time, but this time with the intention of getting well.

Throughout the novel, Lia is constantly concerned with numbers: number of calories, number of time Cassie called her, and the number on the scale. The numbers become a symbol of her decline as well as her memory of Cassie. Whenever Cassie begins to disturb her, she counts. As the encounters with Cassie become more frequent, the number on the scales go down. Not only are numbers important, but also, food. Everyone smells like food, or looks like food. Lia’s unhealthy relationship with food and number dictate her life. Additionally, Lia’s unhealthy self speak is repeated throughout the novel. This includes healthy thoughts crossed out in the novel and an ongoing mantra of self-loathing.  It becomes clear that all of these motifs are intertwined to create Lia’s unhealthy lifestyle. 

Lia’s character is so focused on her body image that she cannot deal with any of the problems around her. She once excelled in school, but now barely gets by. She has no friends and it seems that her world is virtually about herself, alone. Because of the lack of peers in Wintergirls, Anderson focuses on the family’s influence over Lia. Additionally, Cassie’s supernatural presence and memories of her send Lia into a spiral of self-destruction. Lia feels that she cannot talk to any of her family member about Cassie without meeting resistance. Her mother pushes her to go to her therapist. Her father seems to have too much going on in his own life to help her. Her step-mother begins to resent Lia’s need for almost constant supervision. Lia feels as though she is on display and every move she makes is begin watched. In fact, this is in many ways true. In Sharon A. Stringer’s Conflict and Connection: The Psychology of Young Adult Literature, Sharon asserts, “when adolescents separate from their families, they no longer see their parents as infallible. Their subsequent search can involve detecting how they will differ from their parents or escape conformity” (21). Lia understands that her parents are “infallible,” but in her mind, they can do nothing right. It seems that Lia’s self-image spills over into all of her relationships, making everyone of them toxic. Unlike many adolescents who see themselves as extensions of their parents, Lia see herself as an outsider who can never conform, but only get by undetected. 

Lia’s father and mother both seem, through adolescent glasses to be two extremes of parenting. Her father seems like a permissive parent. He lets her get by without eating as much as she should. He does not push her into eating and accepts her need to go to Cassie’s funeral. Her mother on the other hand, feels like an authoritarian, pushing Lia to eat more and take care of herself. However as the characters grow in complexity, it becomes clear that they both are dealing with the problem in different ways. They are both authoritative in that they truly care about her well-being and want her to get well. Her father tries to set up a home where Lia feels comfortable. Even when it seems that he is not paying attention, it becomes clear that he is. Her mother is firm, but tries to reach out and show Lia how much she does love her. The family relationship in this novel are imperative to the complexity of the text. It is vitally important that the parents are examined and discussed. 

Laurie Halse Anderson’s Book List:

Catalyst

Chains

Fever 1793

Fight for Life #1

Forge

Homeless #2

New Beginnings

Prom

Say Good-Bye

Speak

Teacher’s Pet

Thank you, Sarah

Wintergirls