Looking for Alaska

Locations
Call Number: R Printz Award 2006, Teen Fiction / Green, John, Teen Book / Fiction / General / Green, John
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Kids Reference 0-week checkout	R Printz Award 2006	0-week checkout	Library Use Only
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Green, John	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Green, John	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Green, John	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Green, John	4-week checkout	Due 05-09-2024
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Green, John	4-week checkout	Due 05-15-2024
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Green, John	4-week checkout	Due 05-14-2024
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Green, John	4-week checkout	Due 04-22-2024
Malletts Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Fiction / General / Green, John	4-week checkout	Due 05-15-2024
Malletts Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Fiction / General / Green, John	4-week checkout	Due 05-05-2024
Westgate Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Fiction / General / Green, John	4-week checkout	Due 04-30-2024
Westgate Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Fiction / General / Green, John	4-week checkout	Due 04-30-2024

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

School Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Excerpt
Author Notes
Fiction Profile
Table of Contents

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Not that great submitted by joyful and triumphant on August 31, 2008, 7:54am -spoilers-

I was waiting for this for weeks, and when I finally got it I was so excited I wanted to read it right away. Actually, I got it on audiobook first, which I had to give back to my cousin. The audiobook reader was AMAZING, and perhaps I would have liked it better if I had kept reading it on audiobook.

Anyhow, it's a story about-a-guy-who-falls-in-love. Her name is Alaska. They drink a lot of wine. and rum. And milk. and combinations of that. Anyhow, then she -incredibly major spoiler- dies. In a car crash.

The author really doesn't pull it off well after that. Oooh, we can't start this assembly without Alaska here, gasp, gasp, she's dead. Oh, maybe she killed herself -- which gets the book another twenty pages or so, and then a nicely-written prank scene at the end, then it ends. Dun dun dun.

Not particularly well-written. Also, the Printz award usually gets marketed towards 12-15 year olds, and there's sex scenes in here. D'you /really/ want your twelve-year-old reading /that/?

Emotional submitted by pubudu on June 22, 2012, 9:37pm Looking for Alaska was a really moving, and emotional story as it is about a boy who gets stuck in boarding school and falls in love with a girl, named Alaska, who drinks excessively and smokes cigarettes. The story is pretty explicit but conveys a positive message nonetheless.

overhyped, but good nonetheless submitted by jgzhang on July 16, 2012, 1:42pm I've heard so many good things about this book and the author John Green that it fell a little short of my (admittedly high) expectations. Nevertheless, it's still a good read about love, life, death, and friendship. The emotional scenes were pretty evocative; I actually shed a few tears. At the very least, this book has pushed me to check out all of John Green's other works!

brilliant submitted by unknown on July 29, 2013, 5:55pm Green's debut YA novel follows a year in the life of high school junior Miles Halter, a friendless Floridian who begged his parents to enroll him in the Culver Creek boarding school. Miles dreams of starting anew at his elite Alabama prep school, of finding Francois Rabelais's "The Great Perhaps." At school, he falls in with a prankster of a roommate, the Colonel, and the sassy, sexy, messed-up Alaska Young. For an unforgettable 128 days, Miles learns life lessons in love, loyalty, friendship, literature, and poetry, as well as experiences the thrill of a first girlfriend. When tragedy strikes Culver Creek, Miles is forced to undertake an even closer examination of his own character and relationship with his friends.

This is an outstanding coming-of-age novel that has already proved to be a favorite teen read. It doesn't resort to a cop out of a "happily ever after" ending, but the characters each seek closure on their own terms. The characters are well-drawn, witty, and full of individual quirks and spunk. Green even manages to bring in the reality of cigarettes and alcohol without a preachy or over-glorifying tone. This novel has won the Teen's Top 10 award as well as the Printz Award, and Green is well on his way to YA superstardom. I'm looking forward to his next novel.

me submitted by nicenora2371 on August 30, 2013, 10:31pm don't really like that

So so submitted by aparna70 on June 26, 2014, 5:23pm didn't finish it.

OKAY submitted by bluepapaya on June 26, 2014, 5:25pm There's a lot of hype around this book. It's a good book for sure. It just isn't amazing

Extremely Emotional submitted by Dannihu on July 10, 2014, 3:37pm A little bit too emotional for my taste. Extremely moving.

Not as good as expected submitted by bookher on July 28, 2015, 5:00pm I'm still trying to figure why this book won awards. Gosh, it was so depressing and sad and so very explicit. I guess if you want your teenage kid to learn how to properly give a blow job, they should read this book.

Slightly disappointing, but not bad enough to where I wish for that time back submitted by VickyB77 on July 30, 2015, 3:50pm There were some laugh-out-loud parts, some awkward parts, and other parts that just had me bummin'. Was it worth reading? I think so. Is it worth reading again? Nah.

Decent read submitted by steveiew on June 29, 2016, 6:16pm If the whole book would have progressed the way the first half did it wouldn't have been enjoyable. But the twist in the middle made it worth the read.

Loved it submitted by hahahame on July 24, 2017, 6:19pm My first John Green book - it was a good read with a twist in the middle. I enjoyed it in 6th grade, then again in 8th grade.

good one submitted by KOH on August 11, 2017, 11:37pm Really emotional book. Worth a read.

4 of 5 stars. submitted by cullerth on July 12, 2018, 2:11pm This and the Fault in our Stars are the only John Green novels I have found that lived up to the hype.

Learned about this book from Julia Nunes submitted by edb.blanchard on August 14, 2018, 7:29pm Julia Nunes has a YouTube video where she retells one of the epic pranks from this book and that is how I learned about this book and who John Green was (I was a sophomore at Kenyon College at the time-I didn't even know he went there!)

Alright submitted by c_zhang on June 27, 2019, 12:35am The beginning is a little slow, but it picks up. It isn't amazing though.

Really well written. submitted by jasonc1177 on July 31, 2019, 7:35pm It isn't amazing though.

Unique submitted by anonymous on August 2, 2019, 10:20pm Fun, witty, and devastatingly personal, this book will shake you to your core. Have fun with the foreshadowing pieces and little treasures hidden in this story, it will keep you on your toes the whole way through.

Amazing submitted by sydcha on August 2, 2019, 10:22pm This book is a necessity. I would completely recommend it for humor, tears, and an intricate story.

Alaska submitted by Clown81 on August 31, 2019, 4:21pm Want to go there one day.

Great submitted by mountainous on July 13, 2020, 10:59am A great coming of age story. I've re-read this at different points in my life and every time I read it, I take away a new message.

Not a Teen Book, poor role models, is more of a terrible Adult Book. submitted by jgetty on August 5, 2020, 9:43am I kept looking to check was this really a TEEN Book? This had many more Adult subjects than Adult Books that I've read. By page 29, the boy had been peer-pressured to "learn to smoke", even though it at first made him sick, he still persevered to overcome those sick feelings (!), so sad, and learned to smoke, and soon was depending on cigarettes now to help with stress-relief, and he had also by page 29 been peer-pressured into drinking, and was now drinking, a lot of drinking, even though it also made him sick, he stuck to it (!), and became a drinker, and then there was an event where unknown assailants taped his hands and HIS MOUTH and threw him in the lake to DROWN! This all by Page 29. Throughout the book, it was all destructive behavior, giving into peer-pressure, admiring bullying (torture in the drowning scene), violence, misbehavior, and the constant drinking and smoking, so much of this, these life-long behaviors that will be hard to give up and cause health problems. The whole scenario with the main girl was extremely tragic and sad. This book made horrible destructive behaviors seem glamorous, which are terrible role models and ideas for teens. Very heavy topics for a TEEN BOOK, not recommending this book at all. I was really surprised and disappointed it won so many awards including best-ever teen book in several awards, but how can this be, I don't understand, it was so terrible in role models for teens and also ideas of all the things NOT to do in life (drinking, smoking, misbehavior, aiming to self-destruct yourself!), and they were only in high school! I've read a lot of great teen books that didn't win any awards, and to see this book winning so many high-standing awards, makes me so sad for teen readers. So many much better books out there. I don't recommend this book.

5/5 Stars submitted by AxolotlLettuce on August 29, 2021, 7:41pm I defiantly love this book. I couldn't stop reading it and i would suggest it to grade 6 and above.

Looking for Alaska submitted by jhaberich on July 25, 2023, 3:55pm I liked this book, but I'm not sure it lived up to its hype. Definitely there were some good parts of the book, some funny scenes, some differences between this and the average book, and a very sad ending. I recommend to read with low expectations to fully appreciate it.

Okay submitted by Mtadams on August 1, 2023, 7:50am Read this based on a friends recommendation. It was okay but wouldn't read again

Good submitted by pratibhamahesh on August 12, 2023, 11:14pm It’s a good book about love, life and friendship.