Censorship Issues - Looking for Alaska by John Green

 Looking for Alaska by John Green

Summary: Miles “Pudge” Halter is looking for "the Great Perhaps" when he leaves the predictable life with his parents in Florida to attend a Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama. Miles is an introvert whose hobby is collecting famous last words.  His roommate, the Colonel, gives him the ironic nickname Pudge since he’s rail thin.  Pudge is introduced to Alaska, the intelligent, beautiful, highly energetic and emotional girl that he develops a huge crush on.  But Alaska has a boyfriend outside of Culver Creek. She is the center of Pudge’s new group of friends that also include Lara, a Romanian girl, and Takumi. The five of them hang out on Strawberry Hill smoking cigarettes and drinking cheap wine, but also learning together.  Additionally, Alaska and the Colonel are notorious pranksters and lead the group into several carefully planned schemes.   Alaska bears the burden of her mother’s death when she was a child, and one night goes out to her mother’s gravesite alone to her own detriment.  Her friends play the ultimate prank to honor her.  Alaska, who had struggled with solving the labyrinth of life, has been set free.

My Perspective:  I enjoyed reading this book immensely. I initially chose to read it because it was the 2006 Printz Winner, which awards the best book for young adults for that year.  I later learned that John Green’s Looking for Alaska ranked No. 6 on the American Library Association’s top ten challenged books of 2016 for its offensive language and sexual content. Yes, it’s there, but the book does not center on this issue.  Instead it deals more with the impact of the relationships between the characters.  Characters that are well-developed and whose behaviors are not far-fetched from what young adult’s experience. Told from Miles’ perspective, we watch the development of a young man who has few friends to having friends that mean the world to him. This is an impactful story that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it. Students should not be restricted from exploring “the Great Perhaps.”  As the Kirkus Review (2005) stated, “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."

Library Application: This is a good book to discuss censorship issues with high school students. Teaching students that access to information is part of the first amendment.  This could be taught during banned book week held annually at the end of September.

 

References:

Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska.  New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books.

Kirkus Review (2005 March, 1).  [Review of Looking for Alaska.]  Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-green/looking-for-alaska-2/