Bibliography: Green, John. 2005. LOOKING FOR ALASKA. New York: Dutton Children's Books. Print

ISBN: 978-0142402511

 

 

 

 

Plot Summary:
 

Culver Creek High School is known for its academic rigor, infamous pranks, and the illicit actions that only students at a boarding school can get away with.  This is just the place where Miles Halter, a gawky skinny sixteen year old who loves to memorize the last words of famous people, hopes to find his own “Great Perhaps”.  Having left no friends behind at his old high school Miles is surprised when his roommate Chip, who has the self-titled nickname of “The Colonel”, automatically assumes their immediate friendship.  The Colonel is arrogant, intelligent, and a natural born leader.  After a brief introduction between the two, the Colonel gives Miles the nickname of Pudge, an ironic nickname because of Miles' physique.  The Colonel introduces Pudge to bufriedos, cigarettes, Takumi his rap-loving friend, and the girl of his dreams, Alaska Young.  Alaska is a hot mess of natural beauty, intelligence and self-destructive reckless behavior.  From the beginning Miles is on a path to something significant as the chapters continue to count down: “one hundred thirty six days before.” Then it happens and the chapters begin to count up…after.  Can Miles and his friends piece together what really happened?  Can they accept their actions and come to terms with their loss and their guilt. 

Critical Analysis:

This is a story that focuses on the protagonist Miles Halter’s search for an independent identity.  Miles leaves his safe and predictable life in his home town of Florida during his junior year in high school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “great perhaps”.  Moving to a boarding school in Alabama, Culver Creek, offers him the opportunity that he needs to change his life.  Green does a great job of making you believe that he wants more out of life, that he is ready to take a chance on being accepted, making friends and even finding love.  When he first arrives at Culver Creek he doesn’t say it, Green doesn’t describe it, but Miles is so easy to identify with that you can feel that he wants things to change. All of his unresolved desires are what make Miles such a dynamic character. 

When we first meet Miles, he is very self-aware of his unpopularity and lack of real friends.  His first day at Culver Creek is his first all or nothing moment, will he be accepted or will he continue to be part of the background of the school.  To his surprise his roommate Chip Martin assumes their friendship from the moment that they meet. Living for the first time without his parents and surrounded by new friends, Miles gets a taste of many firsts from smoking to kissing.  He discovers a sense of belonging and freedom which causes him to change and grow in the course of the story. 

The plot is realistic and familiar enough to allow you to identify with the characters and their emotions. Yet you know that Green is setting the reader up for some big unpredictable twist. The story is told by the main protagonist Miles from two perspectives: the before and the after. The before unfolds logically and in an indirect way it allows the reader to get to know the characters, Miles desire to be accepted, Chip’s desire to escape his social economic background and Alaska’s reckless, unpredictable behavior. The dialog among the characters is contemporary, authentic, and believable. Green’s realistic dialog reflects today’s prevailing teenage language and flows naturally between the characters as the plot unfolds. It is Alaska’s storyline that provides the intrigue for this story as it is revealed bit by bit throughout the book. Alaska’s character is so intertwined with the progression of the plot that it is difficult to distinguish the plot from the character.  Young adult readers will find this story fascinating and thought-provoking, without feeling like they are being preached to.       

Activities:

Complete the D.A.V.E lesson (high school) - "ALCOHOL POISONING: SAVE A FRIEND".  In this lesson students will read information and role-play situations where they have to act in order to save a friend’s life. 

Lesson objective:

1. Analyze the effects of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs on an individual, including:

           a. physiological effects

2. Describe the potential consequences of using tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, including:

           a. health consequences
           b. family consequences
           c. school consequences
           d. social consequences

Details for this lesson plan can be found at: http://dave.esc4.net/lessons/search/detail.aspx?pageIndex=0&lessonId=804

 

Invite students to research three universities which they wish to attend upon graduating from high school.  Ask student to input their finding into a Tri Venn diagram.  Then ask students to write a persuasive essay for or against living on campus.

Recommended books by John Green:

• An Abundance of Katherines
• Paper Towns
• The Fault in Our Stars  

Awards:

• Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award
• Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
• New York Times bestseller

Reviews:

*Starred Review*

"What sings and soars in this gorgeously told tale is Green’s mastery of language and the sweet, rough edges of Pudge’s voice. Girls will cry and boys will find love, lust, loss and longing in Alaska’s vanilla-and-cigarettes scent." (Excerpt from Kirkus)

*Starred Review*

"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, Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends." (Excerpt from School Library Journal)

 *Starred Review*

"...Miles is a witty narrator who manages to be credible as the overlooked kid, but he's also an articulate spokesperson for the legions of teen searching for life meaning (his taste for famous last words is a believable and entertaining quirk), and the Colonel's smarts, clannish loyalties, and relentlessly methodological approach to problems make him a true original....There's a certain recursive fitness here, since this is exactly the kind of book that makes kids like Miles certain that boarding school will bring them their destiny, but perceptive readers may also realize that their own lives await the discovery of meaning even as they vicariously experience Miles' quest." (Excerpt from Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)

"Readers will only hope that this is not the last word from this promising new author." (Excerpt from Publishers Weekly)