Looking for Alaska by John Green July 15, 2009
Posted by Lisa in Teen Book Reviews, Young Adult Book Reviews.Tags: Friendship, Grief, growing up, loss, love, Michael L. Printz Award 2006
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Looking For Alaska
John Green
New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 2005
ISBN: 9780132402511
Age: 15+
5Q*4P*J*S
16 year old Miles Halter enrolls in the Culver Creek Boarding school with the hope of starting over with a new life. Miles is smart guy who likes to memorize famous last words. Miles begins his first few days at the new school with high hopes of making friends and finding “the Great Perhaps.”
At the new school, Miles meets Colonel his roommate and Alaska a messed up girl full of attitude. Hanging out with the Colonel and Alaska, Miles experiences many firsts, a girlfriend, a kiss, a drink, and breaking the rules. Tragedy strikes the school, when Alaska is killed in a car accident. Alaska’s death affected both Miles and the Colonel deeply. They blamed themselves for not stopping Alaska from driving while drunk in the middle of the night.
This story is both entertaining and sad. I laughed my head off at the witty dialogue between the characters and the “life lessons” that Alaska taught Miles and his first real girlfriend. The themes in this story include friendship, love, loss, and grief. Each of the characters has their own personalities that teens can relate to. I enjoyed reading Looking for Alaska. This is a great for teens 15 and up. The cover was little boring for me with just the smoke blowing on the black background. At first I wasn’t quite sure what the smoke was on the cover.
