Independent Reading: Sharing Your Ideas
April 22,2009
Looking for Alaska
If there is one thing this novel taught me was how you discover one’s own self-image, your relationships, your values, your fears, you passion and overall, yourself. This novel follows the life of a boy named Miles Halter, a high school student who decides to go to the Alabaman boarding school. Miles is the type of chap who was not use to be being in a “gang” in the past. One he arrives at his new school he is introduced to his roommates, Chip (the colonel) has the charm and the brains. Thankfully for Miles he is soon involved with Chip’s group of friends and gets himself into very rebellious acts. Where the teenagers take part in smoking, drinking, and sex leading themselves into a lot of trouble.
This doesn’t happen very fast later on they started to accept Miles to be apart of the group of friends. This group is very unique within with Chip the brains; Takumi the Japanese Kid; and Alaska the queen bee the most beautiful girl always in the room. It doesn’t take long for Miles to become head over heels with Alaska. Alaska is not only rebellious and beautiful but she is also smart and loves to read. Miles knows this because when sitting in her room Miles observes all the novels surrounding the area. “Her library filled her bookshelves and then overflowed into waist-high stocks of book everywhere, piled haphazardly the walls. If just one of them oved, I thought, the domino effect could engulf the three of us in an asphyxiating mass of literature.”
The author though wrote this book in magnificent way because the book is divided into two parts the first part is called “before” and the second part is called “after”. This allows the reader to know a something very dramatic is going to happen. Also each chapter begins with a title for example: “eighty-nine days before”.
I personally feel the author of this book (John Green) is truly an amazing writer to write a novel being told in first person about a sixteen year old boy and making it sound so touching yet compelling at the time. It is especially poignant to me, as a teenager, because I am able to relate to the trials and delight I face in my own life. Overall this is a great book for any teenager or young adult to read. I strongly recommend this novel because “it deals with what makes us human the problems, the triumphs, the decisions.”
