Miles, who is a fan of famous people's last words, leaves his mother and father before his junior year of high school to attend Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama. He goes in search of the "Great Perhaps," which are some of the last words of François Rabelais. There, he instantly falls into an intelligent, rebellious and entertaining group of friends including Chip, or the Colonel as he is called, Takumi and a beautiful and original girl named Alaska Young. The group enjoys smoking cigarettes, reading, and pranking the "Weekday Warriors," who are the priveleged students at school that go to their rich houses on the weekends. Miles, or Pudge as he is later called, has a crush on Alaska, but she is dating a kind boy in college. Alaska reveals her dark past where she watched her mother have a brain aneurism and die instead of calling 911 when she was eight years old. Her father has forgiven her, but she still feels the emotional pain and guilt. One night, Alaska receives a phone call and leaves her friends immediately in a car before dying in a car accident. This book is divided into the life of Miles Before the death of Alaska Young and After the death of Alaska young. Miles and his friends never discover if it was a car accident or suicide, but they honor her memory by fulfilling the group of friend's one last planned prank. Miles remembers Alaska fondly and has learned to forgive is a crucial lesson.
Impact on me
Throughout the novel, and we assume Alask'a life, her favorite novel lead her to continually ponder the question "How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?" This question is alluded to throughout the novel and after Alaska's death, Miles concludes that the way out of the "labyrinth" is forgiveness. Forgiveness seems very basic and small, but based on the novel and based on real-life, forgiveness is complicated and can be very hard to follow through with. I liked the main characters and given the fact that they are at boarding school that is far away from home, it was believable that they were so smart, independent, well-read and mature. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and am so impressed with the sentences, ideas and general writing style of the author, John Green. I will certainly read more works from him.
Reviews
When 16-year-old Miles Halter arrives at boarding school, he is immediately taken under the wing of his scheming, acerbic roommate, Chip, and the beautiful, brainy, and reckless Alaska Young. The story of this trio's light and dark escapades brims with humor, insight, and intelligence as well as a good deal of emotional pain with which these true friends attempt to cope.
Looking for Alaska. (2005). School Library Journal, 51,82.
Girls will cry and boys will find love, lust, loss and longing in Alaska's vanilla-and-cigarettes scent.
Looking For Alaska. (2005). Kirkus Reviews, 73(5), 287.
Looking for Alaska will haunt readers with its memorable characters, its literary and philosophical questions about life and death that so fascinate teens, and its ultimate affirmation of a life fully lived.
Glantz, S., & Scordato, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska. Library Media Connection, 24(3), 66-67.
In the Library
This is a great book to use in classrooms learning about philosophy and religion because the book deals with issues surrounding these subjects. A fun and engaging idea to advertise the book in the library is to blow up a book cover of the book and hang the poster on the wall with post-its notes readily available by the giant book cover. Students can write various things on the post-its: what they learned, who their favorite character was and why, memorable quotes, their favorite parts of the book, their own answer to Alaska's question, "How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?" and anything else they would like to add. The eventual post-its covering the giant book cover on the wall will be a learning tool, extremely interesting to read, and garner attention for the book for other students to read and enjoy.
Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska. New York: Dutton Books.
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