Looking For Alaska

1. Bibliography

Green, John. 2006. Looking for Alaska. New York: Penguin. ISBN 9780525428022

2. Plot Summary

Miles "Pudge" Halter, in search of his Great Perhaps, leaves his home in Florida to attend Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama. Hoping to find some excitement in his boring life, he meets Alaska Young, the fun, beautiful, and unstable girl who changes his world. She invites him into her world, where he begins to find his Great Perhaps and falls in love. After Alaska's death, his life is forever changed. 

3. Critical Analysis

Pudge is thrust into an exciting world after being trapped in his own boring world for so long. In Alabama, he meets friends, such as the Colonel, Alaska, Takumi, and Lara, who he bonds with. He is immediately taken by Alaska, by her wild nature, by the darkness that brews within her, by her beauty. Green does a great job of bringing these characters to life and making the reader root for them. We hope Pudge gets the girl as they grow closer through their back-and-forth pranks with the Weekday Warriors. We're crushed when Alaska passes and we can feel the weight of grief in Pudge's voice. 

The setting of Culver Creek Boarding School, with its woods and lakes, gives the story room to explore the characters. The setting serves as something new for Pudge and something that he continues to explore throughout the story with his friends and the girl that he loves, from getting thrown into the lake on his first night by the Weekday Warriors, to finding cigarette butts littered in the woods. Themes of finding oneself, suicide, and dealing with grief are prevalent and powerfully executed in this novel. 

4. Review Excerpts

Michael Printz Young Adult Award Honor Book
From School Library Journal: "Alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor." 
From Kirkus Reviews: "What sings and soars in this gorgeously told tale is Green's mastery of language and the sweet, rough edges of Pudge's voice." 

5. Connections

This book could be used to explore the depths of suicide, and the affects of it on the victim and the victim's closest friends and family. Even though the subject is dark, it would be good to be aware. 
Enjoy other works from John Green such as:

• The Fault in Our Stars. ISBN 9780142424179
• Paper Towns. ISBN 9780142414934