Looking for Alaska by John Green

 

Title: Looking for Alaska

Author: John Green

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN #: 0142402516

Number of Pages: 221

Trend: Trend: John Green, Tough Girls

Publisher: Speak

Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska. New York, NY: Speak, and imprint of Penguin  

Summary: This book has two parts to it: a “before” and an “after.” The “before” part of the book opens with the depressing going away party of Miles Halter before he leaves for boarding school, but Miles does not care as he prepares himself for the next chapter of his life and his search for what he calls “the Great Perhaps,” a phrase he coined after reading last words of Francois Rabelais. When he gets to Culver Creek Preparatory High School in Alabama his life will never be the same as be becomes best friends with his room mate, and meets Alaska Young, his first love. Though crazy, spontaneous, moody, and self-destructive, Alaska steals Miles’s heart. The first part of the book is counting down to something that the reader can only guess is some big event, and the anticipation grows as the reader nears it. The “after” part of the books begins when Alaska dies in a car crash. Miles spends the rest of the year trying to figure out if it was suicide. John Green’s realistic fiction-debut novel weaves us through falling in love, losing the love, grieving the love, and finally finding acceptance.  

Curricular connections: This book is a great look at teenage angst, and problems that one might face without knowing how to seek help. This would be a good book to compare to something like Catcher in the Rye.

Review Sources: Peter D. Sieruta of Hornbook Magazine declares that Looking for Alaska a, “mature novel, peopled with intelligent characters who talk smart, yet do not always behave that way, and are thus notably complex and realistically portrayed teenagers.” Kirkus Review also comments on the authenticity of the characters, “utterly real gaggle of young persons, full of false starts, school pranks, moments of genuine exhilaration in learning and rather too many cigarettes and cheap bottles of wine.”

Personal response:

I thought this book was amazing, and sad. I remember the days all too well of being a teen just like these ones. It is good to read and get the nostalgic feeling so strongly from a book. John Green’s writing is amazing.