Miles, a nearly-friendless kids whose hobby is memorizing famous last words, leaves his home in Florida and moves to Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama, where his father went as a teen. There, Miles--quickly renamed Pudge because he is so thin--makes friends. His roommate Chip, better known as The Colonel, Takumi, who has a habit of starting rap battles, and most importantly Alaska Young.
After the rich local kids duct tape Miles and throw him into the lake on his first day, the four undertake a massive, prank based revenge plan. Miles develops a massive crush on Alaska, though she has a boyfriend and he eventually starts dating her friend Lara. Still, one night after drinking heavily, Alaska and Miles kiss. Shortly after, Alaska freaks out and asks Miles and Chip to help her sneak off campus. Even though she's drunk they let her drive away.
The next day, there is an assembly called, and the students are told that Alaska died in a car crash, and Miles and his friends have to deal with their guilt, as well as the question of whether the crash was intentional or accidental.
Citation
Green, J. (2005). Looking for alaska. New York, NY: Dutton Juvenile.
Impression
It was...fine. Miles's voice is very strong, and all the teenage shenanigans are very realistically drawn, but I had the same problem with this book that I had with An Abundance of Katherines--it felt a little bit too self-consciously quirky.
Reviews
"The chapter headings make it clear-Before and After. Something bad is going to happen. Geeky sixteen-year-old Miles Halter counts down the days to tragedy, drawing the reader into his new life at an Alabama boarding school. Miles, who leaves his loving parents and lonely, unchallenging school life in Florida, is a bright, shy, friendless scholar. He devours the biographies of famous writers and has an encyclopedic supply of famous last words. At Culver Creek Preparatory School, Miles is enfolded immediately into the exciting, edged-up world of his roommate, Chip Martin, and the beautiful, fearless, haunted Alaska, both veteran students of Culver. They coach and enlist Miles in an ever-escalating war of pranks and counter-pranks with a group of rich, cruel youth. The pranks war fills the world of the three friends, but their escalating craving for harmful substances (their smoking habits are nearly as alarming as their alcohol intake) and some sexual experimentation intrudes on their need to work through their academic curiosity about the meaning of life. Miles yearns for Alaska, whose signals to him are maddeningly mixed. Once the tragedy plays out, the last third of this provocative, moving, and sometimes hilarious story counts up slowly from grief as Miles tries to find his way through the fallout of depression and guilt that he suffers. Green, a familiar presence on National Public Radio, has a writer's voice, so self-assured and honest that one is startled to learn that this novel is his first. The anticipated favorable comparisons to Holden Caufield are richly deserved in this highly
recommended addition to young adult literature."
Andersen, B.E. (2005, April 1). [Review of the book Looking for Alaska, by J. Green]. Voice of Youth Advocates. Retrieved from http://www.voya.com/
"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."
Uses
There is a general impression that YA is all narrated by girls. A display of boy-narrated books could include this one.
Reviews
"The chapter headings make it clear-Before and After. Something bad is going to happen. Geeky sixteen-year-old Miles Halter counts down the days to tragedy, drawing the reader into his new life at an Alabama boarding school. Miles, who leaves his loving parents and lonely, unchallenging school life in Florida, is a bright, shy, friendless scholar. He devours the biographies of famous writers and has an encyclopedic supply of famous last words. At Culver Creek Preparatory School, Miles is enfolded immediately into the exciting, edged-up world of his roommate, Chip Martin, and the beautiful, fearless, haunted Alaska, both veteran students of Culver. They coach and enlist Miles in an ever-escalating war of pranks and counter-pranks with a group of rich, cruel youth. The pranks war fills the world of the three friends, but their escalating craving for harmful substances (their smoking habits are nearly as alarming as their alcohol intake) and some sexual experimentation intrudes on their need to work through their academic curiosity about the meaning of life. Miles yearns for Alaska, whose signals to him are maddeningly mixed. Once the tragedy plays out, the last third of this provocative, moving, and sometimes hilarious story counts up slowly from grief as Miles tries to find his way through the fallout of depression and guilt that he suffers. Green, a familiar presence on National Public Radio, has a writer's voice, so self-assured and honest that one is startled to learn that this novel is his first. The anticipated favorable comparisons to Holden Caufield are richly deserved in this highly
recommended addition to young adult literature."
Andersen, B.E. (2005, April 1). [Review of the book Looking for Alaska, by J. Green]. Voice of Youth Advocates. Retrieved from http://www.voya.com/
"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, February 1). [Review of the book Looking for Alaska, by J. Green]. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Uses
There is a general impression that YA is all narrated by girls. A display of boy-narrated books could include this one.
