Module 5 ( Part 1): Looking For Alaska by John Green

Citation:
Green, J. (2015). Looking for Alaska. New York, NY: Dutton Books, an imprint of Penguin Group.

Summary:
Miles is going to boarding school. Not because it’s where his dad went to; or because he doesn’t have any friends; but, because of the famous last words of Francois Rabelais, “I go to seek a great perhaps.” During the beginning of the year he found the adventure he was looking for. His roommate, known as The Colonel, and his friends are well known for pranking, not to mention one of his roommate’s friends is a beautiful girl miles soon falls for. Within the first few weeks Miles gets tossed into a lake on the ground with his arms duct taped to his sides by the “weekday warriors ( the rich kids who only attend the boarding school on the weekdays). This means war; and The Colonel, Miles, Alaska and their friend Takumi are ready. As story of love, loss, and the struggles of growing up.

My Thoughts:
This book is captivating, well written, and heartbreaking. I love the quirks Green gives the characters, like Alaska and her books she hasn’t read or Miles and his last words. The book is especially important because it shows that closure isn’t always easy, and never quick. The way the book is set up counting down the days to an ominous event keeps the reader curious and entranced.

Professional Review:
“Gr 9 Up-Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter's adolescence has been one long nonevent-no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps," he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school's rich preppies. Chip's best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love. She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior. She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks. Alaska's story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious. Green's dialogue is crisp, especially between Miles and Chip. His descriptions and Miles's inner monologues can be philosophically dense, but are well within the comprehension of sensitive teen readers. The chapters of the novel are headed by a number of days "before" and "after" what readers surmise is Alaska's suicide. These placeholders sustain the mood of possibility and foreboding, and the story moves methodically to its ambiguous climax. The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but 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 believability. Like Phineas in John Knowles's A Separate Peace (S & S, 1960), Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends.”

Lewis, J. (2005). Looking for alaska. School Library Journal, 51(2), 136. Retrieved from https://libproxy.library.unt.edu/login?url=https://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2165/docview/211790927?accountid=7113

Library Use:

A looking for Alaska themed mystery program would be fun for a library. Playing a scavenger hunt or crime mystery type game, or even a “guess who said these last words” game is sure to draw a crowd of the grade level appropriate people. This is also a good fictional book for teens experiencing loss.