"The book that changed, or I guess to put it more aptly, directed how I live my life is Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. I read it in the fourth grade at the recommendation of my older brother, and absolutely fell in love with the quirky, confident girl at the centre of the story. Being so young, and entering a very vulnerable time (hello, puberty), Stargirl completely changed the way I thought about myself and my place in the world. I felt I had a pretty weird name, like her, and the similarities only began there.
The passage which I've forever carried with me is the way the narrator, Leo, describes her: 'She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew.'" — Charisandra Perez, assistant coordinator, Social and Partnerships