Looking for Alaska (2005)

by John Green

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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Miles “Pudge” Halter, a new student at Culver Creek Boarding School, meets a girl named Alaska. Over time, he starts to fall in love with her, and understands that her life hasn't been so easy. Miles was taken by “The Weekend Warriors”, a group at his school, and they put his life at risk. Due to this incident, Pudge and his newly equipped friends, including Alaska, plan a pranking scenario which includes ruining the group’s reputation at school. After the plan succeeds that night, Pudge and his friend group finds out a secretive side to Alaska. Alaska’s mom died and she blamed herself for it, and every year at a certain time Alaska goes to her grave and lies down flowers in remembrance of her. Soon Alaska gets into a car accident, she died instantly. Pudge and his try to figure out what had happened. Their question is soon answered by the facts. Lastly, since Alaska loved pranks, Pudge played the best prank in Culver Creek history.
In my opinion, this book really had me staying up all night. The mystery in this book kept me hanging, and wanting to know more. John Green always makes the best stories, and I look forward to reading all of them. The way he gives the characters so much life really completes the book. This is definitely one of my favorite books, I just love crying with the characters constantly. I really recommend this book for readers who read romance, mystery, and adventure novels. Overall, this book deserves way more recognition than it gets now. (

)

MaddisonB.B4 | May 28, 2019 |

Old school coming of age story a la A Separate Peace for today's audience. Very good stuff. (

)

kweber319 | May 13, 2019 |

Looking for Alaska is a book that shows many emotions. Love, sadness, newness, and friendship are all represented by this book. The author wrote what usually goes at the end in the middle, which makes it original and it shows a before and after of the main problem. Miles, or "Pudge" as his nickname, doesn't have any friends at home and he goes to a new school, where he makes friends and falls in love. He learns a lot of new things, that was the before, and then the tragedy happens, and the after begins. (

)

ViCtOriA312 | Apr 30, 2019 |

Will be reading Looking for Alaska soon!

InnahLovesYou | Apr 18, 2019 |

The first John Green book I've tried, and I enjoyed it quite well. The new flipback edition works very nicely, too. Looking forward to the next one. (

)

JBD1 | Mar 11, 2019 |

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thingScore 75

Miles Halter is a teenager from Florida who likes to read bibliographies and collect last words of famous people. He decided to go to Alabama to finish last two years of his high school education. Miles chooses Culver Creek Preparatory School. His parents are questioning if he decide to go to preparatory school to meet new people and change his boring life style.
Miles instantly became a friend with his roommate Colonel who gave him a nick name Pudge. The Colonel is clever, proud, and financially poor. He is a born leader. Miles got introduced to Alaska Young. She gave his life a new dimension. Alaska is a beautiful, funny, intelligent, and rebellious. Miles falls for Alaska. She became a center of Miles universe.
This book is made using a before and after counting element to build up a grand climax of events. It is an unusual, but effective way of presenting a story. It is a great read. Many teen topics are addressed here: smoking, alcohol consumption and consequences, meaning of life, friendship, belonging, religion, death and dying, grief, and healing.
The author of Looking for Alaska, John Green, made me think about life and our attitude about it. A topic of depression got brought in with Alaska’s behavior. She gave out many times signs that she is suicidal. Her attitude about dying and her struggle with her mother’s passing away was never addressed in a productive way. Her depression was not taken seriously. Consequences are tragic and unbearable.

added by sla3 | editschool review, sla3

Miles's narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability.

added by khuggard | editSchool Library Journal, Johanna Lewis

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (8 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
John Green	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
McCarthy, Linda	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Vandervoort, Irene	Designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Woodman, Jeff	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Work-to-work relationships

Is contained in

John Green Box Set [4-in-1] by John Green

John Green - The Collection [5-in-1] by John Green

John Green - Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska (2-in-1 Collection) by John Green

John Green Collection 3 Books Set, (The Fault in Our Stars, Looking For Alaska & Paper Towns) by John Green

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Series (with order)

Canonical title

Looking for Alaska

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2005-01-01

People/Characters

Alaska Young

Chip Martin (The Colonel)

Miles' mother

Miles' father

Kevin Richman (student)

(show all 15 items)

Important places

Culver Creek (boarding school, Alabama, USA)

Alabama, USA

Important events

Related movies

Looking For Alaska (??? ∙ IMDb)

Awards and honors

ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2006)

Printz Award (2006)

Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist (Young Adult Fiction, 2005)

Booklist Editors' Choice (2005)

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year ( 2005)

(show all 26 items)

Epigraph

Dedication

To my family: Sydney Green, Mike Green, and Hank Green
"I have tried so hard to do right."
(last words of President Grover Cleveland)

First words

The week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go to boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party.

Quotations

How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!

If only we could see the string of consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can’t know better until knowing is useless.

When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don’t know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we are never irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they are old. They get scared of losing and failing.

You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.

When you're walking at night, do you ever get creeped out and even though it's silly and embarrassing you just want to run home?

(show all 7 items)

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Philadelphia Enquirer

Publisher series

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

▾References

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Wikipedia in English (3)

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis

John Green (author)

Looking for Alaska

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

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▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0142402516, Paperback)

New York Times Bestseller

Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

An ALA Quick Pick

A Los Angeles Times 2005 Book Prize Finalist

A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

A 2005 Booklist Editor’s Choice

A 2005 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Before. Miles Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:15:01 -0400)

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▾Library descriptions

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.

» see all 10 descriptions