Looking for Alaska

Green, John (2005). Looking For Alaska. New York: Puffin (reprint). ISBN 978-0142402511.

I had read John Green’s newest book, An Abundance of Katherines, before I started Looking for Alaska, so I expected Looking for Alaska to feature witty, literate teens thinking deeply about their place in the world. (John Green might have honed his skill for dialogue by working, as he does, on NPR’s All Things Considered.) It does: Miles (nicknamed “Pudge” because he’s skinny) and the friends he makes at the coed boarding school he decides to attend at the start of the novel. But Miles and his crew have a darker story to tell, one that’s full of the allure of the forbidden, whether it’s smoking or alcohol or sex.

The title explains the plot of the story; Alaska Young is one of Miles’ classmates, enigmatic, attractive, and with her own dark past. Looking for the real Alaska behind her moods and masks becomes more and more critical to Miles as the story goes on, until he and his friends are forced to create their own bittersweet resolution in the absence of the answers they seek.

I suppose that YA books don’t have to have believable adult characters; I’m not sure I thought real adults were believable until I was in my twenties. Still, if I could change one thing about this book it would be the way the adults are portrayed. Except for one touching moment of humanity, the principal is an over-the-top tough-guy caricature who seems to exist to provide a target of opportunity for Miles and his friends. Miles’ religion teacher is the sarcastic-but-caring crusty academic straight from central casting, and he seems to exist to give the author a reason (and Miles a vocabulary) to bring themes from the world religions into the story. Even if Miles himself (who is the narrator) doesn’t see the adults as three-dimensional characters, I would have appreciated some hints that there’s more to them than Miles thinks.

There are funny moments – usually comic asides delivered by one or the other of the characters. Overall, though, Green captures a certain way of looking at the world in adolescence – the slightly frantic, claustrophobic feeling that the only possible time to figure out who you are and what life is about is right now, before you turn into one of those alien adults.

This book won the Michael Printz Award and a host of other honors, including being named to ALA Best Books, The New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age, and School Library Journal Best Books. It was also an ALA Quick Pick for reluctant YA readers. And thanks to An Abundance of Katherines, Publisher’s Weekly no longer has to worry about its review, which said, “Readers will only hope that this is not the last word from this promising new author.”

I’d use this book with other Printz Award winners in a display to highlight the award, which I think is still not as well known as the Newbery or Caldecott. I might do something like the San Antonio Public Library main branch does in their youth area – poster-sized book talks on the walls with color reproductions of the books’ covers. Having a paragraph-long blurb describing the book seems to pique kids’ interest more than just having the book on display.

Amazon.com. “Looking for Alaska.” Accessed April 10, 2007 from http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/B000BPG2ME/sr=1-1/qid=1176231693/ref=dp_proddesc_0/103-0423122-5982232?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1176231693&sr=1-1 .

Publisher’s Weekly. Qtd in Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/B000BPG2ME/sr=1-1/qid=1176231693/ref=dp_proddesc_0/103-0423122-5982232?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1176231693&sr=1-1 .