Looking for Alaska by John Green

1.     Bibliography

 Green, John. Looking for Alaska. New York: Penguin Group, 2005.

 ISBN: 978-0142402511

 2.     Plot Summary
Looking for Alaska is a story of life, loss, recovery and finding meaning through it all. Young Miles (Pudge) attends boarding school in Alabama; there he meets Alaska Young who flips his paradigm of a life upside down. Pudge and his group of friends band together, learn life’s toughest lessons and grow to understand loss on a different level through this funny and sad story.

 3.     Critical Analysis

 Looking for Alaska is a classic tragic coming of age story. John Green does a phenomenal job of developing the characters in this Printz Award Winner. The story takes place during present day at the Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama. The setting provides a scenic and quaint backdrop to the story. Looking for Alaska is told from the first person perspective of Miles, who gains the ironic nickname of Pudge by his friends. Pudge is a teenager trying to find his way through adolescence at Culver Creek where he meets a group of like-minded friends and the gorgeous, spunky, witty, and a true force of nature Alaska Young. Pudge falls madly "in" to her and can't help being taken up by her magnetic and troubled personality. 
Pudge has an affinity for studying and memorizing the last words of famous people. This, along with the foreboding chapter headings John Green includes (90 days before, 75 days before etc.) gives the reader an impending feeling of dread. Regardless, this read is surprisingly funny, light-hearted at times and captivating up until its touching conclusion. John Green tells this story using a good balance of realistic teenage dialog and narration from Pudge's perspective. 
John Green has several messages he wishes to convey in this story but the overall arching themes must be friendship, loss, and love. Looking for Alaska was not sugar-coated or cheesy in any way. Rather, the friendships, the relationships, the characters, and their experiences all seem very authentic. 
4.     Review Excerpts

 2006 Printz Award Winner

 From Publishers Weekly: the novel's chief appeal lies in Miles's well-articulated lust and his initial excitement about being on his own for the first time. Readers will only hope that this is not the last word from this promising new author.

 From Book Page: Green has written an inventive novel, one that will help young readers assess their place in the world and how they deal with one another. Looking for Alaska is funny, sad, inspiring and always compelling.

 From GoodReads: “[Pudge’s] life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.”

5.     Connections
Other books by John Green 

 The Fault In Our Stars
By John Green
ISBN: 978-0142424179

 Paper Towns 
By John Green
ISBN: 978-0142414934

 Turtles All The Way Down
By John Green
ISBN: 978-0525555360

 This story would be a good book to incorporate into a unit or a lesson about loss, grief, and life’s unanswered questions.

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