Looking for Alaska (Ty Hersom) (Mark DuBois)

Looking for Alaska written by John Green.
Published by the Penguin Group.
221 pages.
The book that I read is called Looking for Alaska by John Green. I decided to read it when the librarian, Ms. Mazur recommended it to me.
Miles “Pudge” Halter is the main character. Miles has always had a boring life at home with his parents, and he was ready to make a change. Once he realizes that he doesn’t want the same boring life, he decides to head off to a boarding school, Culver Creek Boarding School. Culver Creek is a crazy place to be and there is always something going on. He pictures a very nice place in his head, but when he arrives he realizes that it is just a plain old boarding school. When Miles is in school he meets a gorgeous girl named Alaska Young, and she steals his heart. His life turns upside-down in this book and it takes you through many exciting events.
I think that the audience for this book is teenagers in high school, because they can relate somewhat to the book, and they are interested in the things that the main character goes through.
The writing style of John Green, the author, is very relative to those that would appeal to high school males. “Takumi stopped. Said ‘uh-oh,’ got on his hands and knees, and puked a volcano of yellow and pink.” (124).
There were a couple passages in this book, Looking for Alaska that really struck me in some way. For example, “The Colonel turns his face from the ground to me and looks dead in the eye and says, ‘I. Can’t. Breathe.’ ” (143). this passage struck me because this booked was filled with some tragedies and I thought that this was going to be another one, so it made me keep reading. It turned out that Chip "The Colonel" Martin was actually finally, but it was one of those things that kept me reading.
Another passage that struck me was when Miles heard the Alaska may have kissed another girl. “And he couldn’t know, because he wasn’t the last person she kissed, because he wasn’t me. Screw this, I thought, and for the first time, I imagined just going back home, ditching the Great Perhaps fir the old comforts of school friends. Whatever their faults, I’d known my school friends in Florida to die on me.” (165). This struck me because it was the first time in the whole book that Miles didn’t want to be in boarding school and didn’t want to live the life that he thought he wanted, and he felt all this because of a girl he had just met at Culver Creek.
I think that the primary theme of this book is to think before you act. The reason that I believe that is the theme is because through out the book, the Characters are always getting themselves into trouble, and every time it seems as though they are not thinking before they act. One example would be the obvious one, when Alaska drinks before she drives, if Colonel and Miles didn’t tell her to leave and drive away to she didn’t get in trouble, she might have gotten in trouble, but she would still be alive. And another example is through out the book the characters drink and do drugs. This only leads to controversy and if they thought before they did it then they would not have to deal with consequences.
If I were to give this grade a book I would give it a B+, but that all depends on the kind of person you are. To me I thought this book was very interesting and it kept me reading, and I was always wondering what results were going to come out of the actions that were being done.

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Looking for Alaska, John Green, Penguin Group, Pages: 221
I choice this book because Ms. Mazur recommended it to me, also Tyler choice the same book so we could talk about the book.
The book is about a kid who goes to a boarding school, once he gets settled in he meets his roommate chip so is a genius. He is not the most well behaved kid; he plays a lot of pranks on people. Also he is the one who introduces miles to drugs and smoking, he turns him on a dangerous path. He than introduces him to a beautiful girl named Alaska. A few days after they meet Alaska gets into her car, while being drunk, and gets into a crash and dies instantly. They both have to deal with her death knowing that they were the last people to see her alive.
The audience for this book is young adults, because it talks about all the things young adults are faced with: driving drunk, smoking, and drugs.
The style of her writing is filled with a little slang, but it is written like teenagers are talking. For example: “When she ****** up, all those years ago, just a little girl terrified into paralysis, she collapsed into the enigma of herself. And I could have done that, but I saw where it led for her. So I still believe in the Great Perhaps, and I can believe in it in spite of having lost her”.
“Coosa Liquors entire business model is built around selling cigarettes to minors and alcohol to adults.” Alaska looked at me with disconcerting frequency when she drove, particularly since we were winding though a narrow, hilly highway south of school, headed to the aforementioned Coosa liquors.” 93 This passage stuck out to me because it is the place were they get there liquor and cigarettes. Plus it shows you that Alaska has gone there before, also that it is a challenging road to drive.
“The colonel slept the not restful sleep of the drunk, and I lay on my back on the bottom bunk, my mouth tingling and alive as if still kissing, and we would have likely slept though our morning classes had the Eagle not awoken us at 8:00 with three quick knocks. I rolled over as he opened the door and the morning lights rushed into the room.” 137. The passages is the first after the crash has happened and they don’t have any idea of it happening, because they were too drunk to have remember it happening or of it happening.
I believe that the theme of the book is that you can go and make new friends just be careful of who you become friends with you don’t want to with the wrong crowd. For example when they are going to the buy liquor and cigarettes
I believe that this book should get a B as its letter grade. Because it had a very good plot and it was a good read. But there is always room for improvement.