Stargirl

I read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli sometime in the fall, and couldn't write about it for a while because writing about it just seemed too much for me.  The book is all about high school drama, so italics seem completely apt, although I don't recall Spinelli using any.
Stargirl is a "young adult novel" narrated by Leo, a high school junior when the events happen, about the new girl in school, "Stargirl".
Jerry Spinelli's Newberry Award Winning Maniac McGee helped me through my first major break-up (along with Robyn McKinley's The Blue Sword), so I was prepared for a crazy world: that the book starts with a collection of porcupine neckties did not phase me.  I was not prepared to be so angry at the narrator, and thus myself, for being a non-committal, caring-about-his-image high school student, instead of living fully in the moment like Stargirl.  It made me embarrassed to be the kind of person who appreciates eccentricity but wants to live as a conformist. When I finished I was shaken.

Then I forgot Stargirl until I read The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman last week and many of the same emotions emerged.  The books are very similar, both excellent young adult novels narrated by high school guys who realize, too late, that they didn't treat the titular characters well.  That's despite the completely different settings and premises: Stargirl transforms her high school while Calvin Schwa passes through life unseen.

Stargirl was part of my "glowing" book series, along with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon  by Grace Lin, which I found magically beautiful.  All three books, along with the many others, like The Wednesday Wars, The Dairy Queen, Just Ella and Princess Ben, have been part of the unintentional "a good YA book is so much better than a mediocre adult novel" series.  The Wednesday War and The Dairy Queen were Shakespeare-based, which I did not realize in advance, and Just Ella and Princess Ben fairy tale based, which I did realize.

What are you reading?  Is it about glowing?  Does it glow?