Words for a a Wednesday: Star Crazy Me

August 19, 2015

Star Crazy Me by Jean Ure is officially my favourite 'sugar' read. It's sweet, meaningful and a little bit girly, but has a lot of brilliant boy characters too. So anyone can read it - and you must!

I adore all of this book, from start to finish. But this sentence is the best:

"My dear girl, if you had been hit over the head by some young thug late at night, I doubt you'd be able to identify them either. All I was able to tell the police was that it was a black thug rather than a white thug, and I can't really see how that is going to be much help, considering there are countless young thugs of both shades roaming the streets."

When I first read it, I laughed so, so hard. The woman speaking is an elderly lady called Mrs P, who is so spunky it's almost untrue. She coaches the main character, Carmen, in her singing, managing her almost daily diva fits, and I love that she's both posh and hardcore. The phrasing of this quote is brilliantly characteristic of her well-spoken sarcasm.

Another thing I like is how it handles the potential racism of the situation: it's matter-of-fact, and doesn't tiptoe around the terms 'black' or 'white', yet it is completely equal. Later on in the paragraph, Carmen thinks about what a shame it is. That she's sorry people will say it's "one of them" again.

I conquer completely with everything Star Crazy Me says about life.