Looking for Alaska

Green, John. Looking for Alaska. ISBN-10: 0142402516, ISBN-13: 9780142402511. Graphia. 2007.

Plot Summary
"Pudge" has left his friendless life behind in Florida in hopes of a better life at the Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama. Things are immediately different when his roommate shows up and introduces Pudge to Alaska. She's beautiful, funny, rebellious, sexy and a mess. She fascinates him and makes him crazy with lust. That was all before what came after.

Critical Evaluation
All teens envision leaving behind bad times for what Pudge calls the "Great Perhaps" (from Rabelais). At his new boarding school, Culver Creek, he is able to shuck the boringness of the first 16 years of his life for the drinking, smoking and prank-pulling life with his roommate "the Colonel" and the Colonel's best friend, the beautiful Alaska. The two of them drag Pudge into the world and give him experiences beyond his wildest dreams. Interestingly, the book is in two parts (before and after), and further divided into the days "before" and the days "after." As the number of days before dwindles, readers wait with breaths held for what will happen. And when tragedy does strike, the characters and readers will realize that you can never go back, knowing what you now know. John Green weaves a story rich with the feelings young men have toward sex and love and friendship and how the three are vastly different. He ties humor into lives that are lacking any, and empathetic emotion where you least expect it.

Reader's Annotation
Pudge goes to boarding school to escape his boring life. He never expects to find the friends he does, or to fall in love with the funny, smart and {yet} sad Alaska, or to have to learn how to deal with losing her.

About the Author
John Green worked as a publishing assistant and production editor for Booklist during the years he wrote his first novel, Looking for Alaska. It was published in 2005 to excellent reviews—it went on to win the Michael L. Printz award in 2006, among many other accolades. His second novel for young adults, An Abundance of Katherines, was published in 2006, and followed by Paper Towns in 2008. Green also is working with David Levithan on the novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Green's books are full of feeling and hilarity while facing deep topics.

Genre
Boys/Men
Dating/Sex
Death/Dying

Curriculum Ties
no applications

Booktalking Ideas
Would you leave this life you're living now behind for another…
How would you cope with a friend's death…

Awards
Michael L. Prinze Award (2006)

Reading Level/Interest Age
Ages 15+

Why I included this title...
I have always heard good things about this book—it's a good one.