#WHAT TIME DOES LOVE STARGIRL TAKE PLACE FULL#

It’s a mile out of town, a one-minute bike ride from my house. No house in view except a little white stucco bungalow off to the right. The thing is, it’s been right in front of me ever since we moved here last year, but today is the first time I really saw it.

If I were in charge of calendars, every day would be January 1.Īnd what better way to celebrate this New Year’s Day than to begin writing a letter to my once (and future?) boyfriend. You can learn more about Jerry Spinelli at Excerpt. His latest novel, Stargirl, was a New York Times bestseller and an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults. Jerry Spinelli is the author of more than a dozen books for young readers, including Maniac Magee, winner of the Newbery Medal. Their six children have given Jerry Spinelli a plethora of clever material for his writing. While they write in separate rooms of the house, the couple edits and celebrates one another’s work. Spinelli lives with his wife and fellow writer, Eileen, in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey.”

On inspiration, the author says: “Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. I thought I was simply growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania looking back now I can see that I was also gathering material that would one day find its way into my books.” Yes, in the sense that the first 15 years of my life turned out to be one big research project. No, in the sense that I seldom plow through books at the library to gather material. When asked if he does research for his writing, Spinelli says: “The answer is yes and no. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved Penn Relays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book, while Maniac Magee is set in a fictional town based on his own hometown. Readers see his life in his autobiography Knots in My Yo-Yo String, as well as in his fiction. Spinelli’s hilarious books entertain both children and young adults. Spinelli feels that he accidentally became an author of children’s books.

When he submitted a fifth novel about a 13-year-old boy, adult publishers once again rejected his work, but children’s publishers embraced it. He wrote four adult novels in 12 years of lunchtime writing, but none of these were accepted for publication. Every day on his lunch hour, he would close his office door and craft novels on yellow magazine copy paper.

#WHAT TIME DOES LOVE STARGIRL TAKE PLACE FULL#

He then traded in his baseball bat for a pencil, because he knew that he wanted to become a writer.Īfter graduating from Gettysburg College with an English degree, Spinelli worked full time as a magazine editor. His father submitted the poem to the Norristown Times–Herald and it was featured in the middle of the sports page a few days later. While everyone else rode about town tooting horns in celebration, Spinelli went home and wrote “Goal to Go,” a poem about the game’s defining moment, a goal-line stand. One night during high school, Spinelli watched the football team win an exciting game against one of the best teams in the country. He played for the Green Sox Little League team in his hometown of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and dreamed of one day playing for the major leagues, preferably as shortstop for the New York Yankees. Growing up, Jerry Spinelli was really serious about baseball.

What time does love stargirl take place