Speaking of good old classic pranking, we're featuring a young adult novel this month that's supposed to be just fun but turns out to be not so much at the end. 36-year-old American writer John Green's Looking for Alaska was published in March 2005 by Dutton Juvenile. It broke into a New York Times best seller list sometime during the last week of July 2012, 385 weeks or more than 7 years after it was released.
He is fond of reading biographies, and particularly has a quirky unusual interest of memorizing the famous subjects' last words. Once settled at the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek, he befriends a couple of equally gifted outcasts: his five feet tall roommate Chip Martin -- commonly known as the Colonel -- who has a predilection for memorizing long, alphabetical lists for fun; and the beautiful yet emotionally unpredictable Alaska Young, whom the protagonist comes to adore.
Besides her, the Colonel also introduces him to Takumi, a student of Japanese descent who often feels left out of the trio's plans while Alaska acquaints her with Romanian immigrant Lara Buterskaya who later becomes Miles' girlfriend for a brief period. The kids grow closer as they make their way through a school year but chapter headings like "forty-six days before" and "the last day" portend a tragic event.
Green attended a boarding and day school outside of Birmingham in Alabama. A student died there under circumstances similar to the character of the title girl and he got the idea of the "fox hat" from a Filipino friend who wore a similar hat while playing pranks at the same institution. Looking for Alaska and other books by the same author can be found at the fREADom Hub of the High School Learning Resource Center.
The author's debut is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, tracing the journey of skinny sixteen-year-old misfit Florida teenager Miles Halter who leaves the safety of home for a boarding school in Alabama and a chance to explore the "Great Perhaps."
He is fond of reading biographies, and particularly has a quirky unusual interest of memorizing the famous subjects' last words. Once settled at the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek, he befriends a couple of equally gifted outcasts: his five feet tall roommate Chip Martin -- commonly known as the Colonel -- who has a predilection for memorizing long, alphabetical lists for fun; and the beautiful yet emotionally unpredictable Alaska Young, whom the protagonist comes to adore.
Besides her, the Colonel also introduces him to Takumi, a student of Japanese descent who often feels left out of the trio's plans while Alaska acquaints her with Romanian immigrant Lara Buterskaya who later becomes Miles' girlfriend for a brief period. The kids grow closer as they make their way through a school year but chapter headings like "forty-six days before" and "the last day" portend a tragic event.
Green attended a boarding and day school outside of Birmingham in Alabama. A student died there under circumstances similar to the character of the title girl and he got the idea of the "fox hat" from a Filipino friend who wore a similar hat while playing pranks at the same institution. Looking for Alaska and other books by the same author can be found at the fREADom Hub of the High School Learning Resource Center.
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