looking for alaska

1. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

LOOKING FOR ALASKA

Written by John Green

Published by Dutton Books

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN: 0-525-47506-0


2. PLOT SUMMARY

A first year student at Alabama's Culver Creek boarding school, Miles Halter must learn to deal with many challenges--living away from his parents, making new friends, and getting used to the opressive Alabama heat. As he struggles to figure it all out, Miles meets some people along the way who will have a profound impact on his young life. In particular, Chip Martin, his genius roomate and Chip's best friend Alaska Young, will be a special challenge as Miles deals with the impact her short life will have on his.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Author John Green does such a fantastic job of creating believable, realistic characters that it is hard to believe this is his first novel. LOOKING FOR ALASKA is full of teenage characters who are dealing with the struggles that plague many teens. Although some of these characters may be a little more "worldly" than your average teen, Green creates characters in whom we see many strengths as well as weaknesses. All of the teens, from main character Miles to genius Chip are portrayed as anguished, struggling teens. One teen in particular who struggles is the title character, Alaska. Early on, the reader gets a sense of Alaska's struggles when she tells Miles, "There are people here with real problems. I've got real problems. Mommy ain't here, so buck up, big guy."

Instead of the story being divided by chapters, it is broken up into a "Before" and "After" section. The story is broken into sections titled, "one hundred twenty-seven days before" and "sixty-two days after." As you read the story, these titles foreshadow a critical event that is coming in the plot (Alaska's death), and Miles's slow struggle of dealing with his sudden loss. I liked this approach to telling the story. It kept the plot moving and prepared the reader for the tragic climax.

The description of Alabama was extremely descriptive. I especially like Miles's lines concerning the heat--"...the sun burned through my clothes and into my skin with a vicious ferocity that made me genuinely fear hellfire." With a description like that, it was obvious that Miles was having a hard time dealing with the heat. I also like how Green described Miles's reaction to an all fried diet..."You can say a lot of bad things about Alabama, but you can't say that Alabamans as a people are unduly afraid of deep fat fryers." I couldn't help but laugh out loud at this bit of profound wisdom from Miles.

Overall, the author told this story in a straightforward style that suited Miles's narration of the novel. There was no question that early on there would be a tragic event that would shake up this small boarding school community. Miles, as the newcomer to Culver Creek was the perfect character to tell this story. While I enjoyed the writing style of John Green, I was disturbed by the story. Not teaching high school, nor being around many high schoolers, I was pretty shocked by some of the things these young adults did in the story. I would be hesitant to put this novel out for just any student to pick up. I feel that a mature, responsible student would enjoy the story, and see the message Green was trying to get across to his readers, but would worry about this book falling into the hands of an irresponsible young adult. One who might read this story and think that because these students did the things they did in the story it would be okay for them to do it to. Overall, I liked the book, and would recommend it to the right reader, but still might want make parents aware of some of the "mature" situations in the story.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT

From School Library Journal: "...place holders sustain the mood of possiblity and forboding, and the story moves methodically to its ambiguous climax. The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but are sophisticated in nature. Miles's narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believablity."

5. CONNECTIONS

*Students not familar with the concept of boarding schools could research a few noted ones, and see how similar/different they are compared to Culver Creek.
*Research the state of Alabama. Are John Green's depictions of people from this state accurate/realistic?