katiesmom

1.  Bibliography

Green, John. 2005. looking for alaska. New York: Penguin. 10:  1-4233-2444-7

2.  Plot summary

Miles Halter, sixteen years old and famous last words aficionado, is leaving public high school in Florida to attend prep school, his father’s alma mater Culver Creek, in Alabama.  During his first semester at Culver Creek he will encounter many firsts; his first nickname, Pudge because he is so skinny; his first friends; roommate Chip Martin, also called the Colonel because he leads the fight against the Culver Creek rich kids; and Alaska Young, beautiful, brilliant, troubled, and looking for a way out of the labyrinth known as life; and his first encounter with heartbreak.  In order to survive Miles must find a way out of his labyrinth or learn to live with heartbreak.

3.  Critical analysis

I listened to Printz Award Winner looking for alaska on an unabridged, six CD set read by Jeff Woodson; actor and one of AudioFile magazine’s Top 50 Voices of the Century.  Woodson brings the characters of hesitant, deep-thinking Miles; wise-cracking, prank-meister the Colonel; ancient, wheezing Dr. Hyde; and cynical, seen-it-all, head of Culver Creek Prep, The Eagle, to life.  With a slight softening of his voice, Woodson also lets the listener see the female characters of outspoken, mercurial Alaska and shy, kindly, foreign exchange student Lara.  With no added sound effects except the low volume music that signals the end of each CD, Woodson performs solo, and still manages to make the listener feel they are attending Culver Creek with Miles, the Colonel, and Alaska; caught up in the pressure and anxiety of grades, the opposite sex, teachers finding out what they are really up to, parents expectations, and learning how to go on when the unthinkable happens.  Revealed by Miles’ thoughts and the conversation of the other characters, we journey with him and his friends from the exhilaration of planning the perfect prank, the frustration of trying to decipher the meaning of life, and the deep despair of death.  Through the thoughts of Miles and his conversations with others we are introduced to life at a prep school.  Author John Green presents his characters not as stereotypical rich, bad kids versus poor, good kids, but simply as human beings with both good and bad in their character.  Teens will identify with Miles, the Colonel, and Alaska as they do homework, lament cafeteria food, and attempt to keep what their parents and teachers know about their activities to a minimum.  As Miles literally counts down the days to the coming tragedy, “one hundred thirty-six days before” (Green, 3) the listener rides the rollercoaster of teen emotion to the anticipated yet devastating climax.  Without moralizing Green follows Miles, his friends, former enemies, and the adults who inhabit their world as they struggle to make sense of  life, death, and the universal question of whether it is better to try and understand what it all means from the living, breathing side of the labyrinth, or seek the answers in the great unknown called death

4.  Review excerpts

AudioFile:  Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter is bored, lonely, and unchallenged, so he decides to leave his family home in Florida for the Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama. There he finds his math-genius roommate, Chip, sometimes called the Colonel, and the sexy, vivacious, but already taken Alaska Young. Reader Jeff Woodman captures the angst of teen life, and the listener experiences the full range of emotions when a young life ends unexpectedly. This winner of the American Library Association Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature will inspire young people to ask the important questions in life and remind older readers just how important those questions are.

5.  Connections

A “Brown Bag” book report would be a great way for teens to express their feelings about this book and the themes of death and friendship that it explores.  Another good book to suggest to teens is I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak.

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