Looking for Alaska

1. Bibliography
Green, J. 2005. Looking for Alaska. New York, NY: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780142402511

2. Summary
Miles “Pudge” Halter finds himself wondering about the meaning of life, more so his meaning of life. With living an otherwise uneventful life thus far, Pudge constantly wonders about and hopes for his “Great Perhaps,” the break his life needs to finally find a meaning in everything. All this becomes clearer to him when he meets a new girl, Alaska Young, in his new school, Culver Creek. At Culver Creek, Pudge befriends Chip “The Colonel” Martin, who introduces him to Alaska and more of his friends. During the semester, Pudge becomes closer to these friends and starts dating a foreign-born student, Lara Buterskaya; but, more importantly, Pudge becomes (intimately) closer with Alaska, despite Alaska having a personal life with her boyfriend outside of Culver Creek. From countless smoke breaks under a secret bridge just outside of campus grounds, to hiding from the dean, “The Eagle,” Pudge finally grabs a fuller sense of meaning in his shared life with Alaska. All of this happens, before Alaska’s death. Alaska, after drunk-driving away from campus, crashes head first onto an oncoming police car, instantly killing her. Pudge, Chip, and the rest of his friends struggle to process and believe what happened. Nothing seems to make sense to Pudge anymore, but time is the only answer he has left in finding a meaning to his life, helping him accept the death of Alaska, his Great Perhaps.

3. Discussion
Looking for Alaska discusses topics such death, drugs and drinking, which may not be suitable for elementary or middle school readers. I would recommend this book for older students, in the high school level because I believe students at this age are still trying to learn who they are, and they will be able to relate to Pudge, and his yearning for a meaning in life.

Although the book is fiction, I believe it can be categorized in the subgenre of realistic fiction. One criteria mentioned in our chapter of Realistic Fiction states “How does the topic or subject matter of the book relate to modern readers?”, and this book discusses various topics that many readers may be able to relate to. One main example is the death and loss that Pudge goes through when he losses Alaska. Even the way he loses Alaska may be relatable to some readers, especially those who have lost someone to drunk driving.

4. Connections
I believe this would be a great book to read in a high school classroom where the teacher would be able to stop at various times in the book and hold discussions with the students. Since many high school students may have already been exposed to underage drinking, this book would be great to use as a talking point for this topic.

The only other book that I have read by John Green is The Fault in Our Stars and it is still one of my favorite books to reread. I have heard a lot of great things about his other books such as Paper Towns, Turtles All The Way Down, and An Abundance of Katherines and those are other books I have listed in my YA list to read.