Looking For Alaska
Green, John
Izzy Deal
03-07-2014
7-2
Miles Halter
Miles is a tall and skinny, sixteen year old boy. He lives in Florida until he goes to Culver Creek, a boarding school in Alabama. Miles remembers famous people's last words. He's smart and is called by the nickname "Pudge".
Chip Martin
Chip, a short muscular boy, is Miles room mate at Culver Creek. He smells like cigarette smoke and he later becomes Miles' best friend. Chip is called "The Colonel" by his friends.
Alaska Young
Alaska is smart and funny. Miles thinks she beautiful and falls in love with her. She loves pulling pranks at Culver Creek. Her mom died when she was little, and she blames herself for it.
Takumi Hikohito
Takumi is Japanese, he's thin and short. He likes to rap and has a fox hat. Takumi is friends with the Colonel and Alaska. He becomes close friends with Miles when they meet.
Culver Creek Preparatory School
The story takes place in present time at Culver Creek, a boarding school in Alabama. Culver Creek is surrounded by trees in the back and a highway in the front. The boarding school is nicknamed "The Creek" and it's run by who the students call, "The Eagle".
Summary
Miles Halter is sixteen when he tries to look for the Great Perhaps at a boarding school in Alabama called Culver Creek. Miles has a thing for memorizing famous people's last words. He doesn't expect to meet his new roommate, Chip Martin. Chip is nicknamed "The Colonel" and he memorizes the populations and capitols of all the countries in the world. Miles meets Takumi, a Japanese rapper with a fox hat. He meets Lara, a quiet Russian girl who is Miles first girlfriend. Miles never thought he would meet someone like Alaska Young, a crazy girl who he falls in love with. The five friends have fun and go on adventures in the woods. Pulling pranks is a typical thing for the students at Culver Creek. Things start to look up for the friends when they pull the best prank at Culver Creek. Everything goes as planned and the friends are amazed, proud, and happy. Things seemed to be going great until a game of truth or dare and a late-night phone call. Tragedy strikes after a deadly car crash, and Miles must search for the answers about life and death. Alaska pulls Miles into her labyrinth trying to figure out the meaning. She launches him into the Great Perhaps and changes his life forever.
Michael L. Printz Award
This award honors the best book written for teens, and young adults. It takes a fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or anthology book that is considered young adult for the winner, and up to four runner-up honor books. Adult books are not eligible for the award. The Printz award is named after Michael L. Printz, a school librarian in Topeka Kansas who loved books and reading. The 2006 winner of the Michael L. Printz award was John Green for his book, Looking for Alaska. One or more of the following criteria must apply to the book that wins the award, story, voice, style, setting, accuracy, characters, theme, illustrations, and design. The Michael L. Printz award was established in 2000.
John Green
John Michael Green was born in Indianapolis on August 24, 1977. Three weeks after he was born his family moved to Orlando, Florida. John attended Lake Highland Preparatory School and Indian Springs School. He graduated from Kenyon College in 2000, then after college John worked at a children's hospital as a student chaplain for five months. John wanted to become an Episcopal priest, but with the experiences at the hospital he decided to become an author. After working at the hospital he lived in Chicago for several years. His first book, Looking for Alaska, won the Michael L. Printz award in 2006. The setting for Looking for Alaska was based on John's experiences at his school. John Green has written five novels and they have been published in more than a dozen languages. As of December 2013 John stated he was beginning to write his new book.
My Thoughts
I liked this book, I thought the message it sent was powerful and meaningful. This book tells an amazing story of love and life. I think the book fits the criteria because the way John Green describes the characters and settings, it paints a mental picture in your mind. I think this book is award winning because it keeps getting more interesting and it's a great storyline.