John Green Book Talk

Book Talk: Looking for Alaska by John Green

11.   (Before.) Miles “Pudge” Halter is looking for a “Great Perhaps.” Miles is a teenager with a weird (but cool) obsession with famous last words. Unfortunately for Miles, his life is a complete bore; no one would ever read a biography about his life. In hope of an exciting life, Miles goes to Culver Creek Boarding School. Within Miles first day at Culver Creek, he gets the nickname Pudge, makes a few friends (Chip aka the Colonel and Takumi aka the Fox), and gets thrown in a lake. The book explores ideas that teenagers go through including smoking, sex, alcohol, relationships, and of course school. Miles falls in love with a girl named Alaska (well it’s more infatuation than love.) Miles and his friends pull pranks on the Weekday Warriors, who are the rich kids of the school. Miles and his friends pull a prank on the week day warriors for throwing Miles in the lake. It ends with Miles getting a girlfriend (Lara) and having an “adventurous” relationship, which is new to both of them. All seems well in the story of a teenager exploring new ideas and possibilities Alaska dies in a drunken car accident. (After.) Miles and friends are heartbroken and try to cope with their friend’s death. They chase hope and try to figure out why this tragic thing happened and what they could have done differently. Nothing is ever the same, but they do eventually come to terms with Alaska’s death.

22.   I chose this text because it is very relatable to teens. I feel as though books like Of Mice and Men can be hard to relate to our students regardless of it’s great content. I want to give students the chance to think about how they perceive themselves and how other perceive them. Often times, teenagers can act like their invincible and that consequences don’t matter. This book also has a great set up This book addresses many ideas and thoughts teenagers have (sex, alcohol, cigarettes, friends, guilt, and old grouchy teachers). This text would be appropriate for 9^th to 12^th graders because the book is easy to read, but deals with difficult subjects many teens are familiar with. Many students are going through the same things that Miles is. The characters are all very diverse and come from different backgrounds as well. Some 9^th grade classes may struggle to be mature around some of the more descriptive scenes, but overall, it’s an appropriate book for growing teens. This book can also be used in addition to Common Core Standards.

33. This book covers so many ideas that it could be used in a multitude of ways. Writing topics and discussions can be taken farther than the normal theme lessons. My favorites lesson ideas include:

a.       Foreshadowing: Before the death of Alaska, she talks also about death in the before part of the book. Students can get a sense of her morality and her death doesn’t come as a shock to most readers. The barn scene is a key scene to look and discuss as a foreshadowing example and sets up other scenes in the story.

b.      Character Development: All characters have major development, but Miles development is the greatest in my opinion. He goes from this boring kid with no life to having friends and tragedy very soon in his young life. Students could use in-text evidence to point towards Miles development.

c.       Narrative writing and POV: Students could write a letter to Alaska as Chip or Miles and write their feelings about her death. Students would be able to think about their characters point of view and how that character would feel based on what evidence from the text suggests.  

d.      Discussions: There are many appropriate topics that students could discuss in class to practice their discussion ability: how they are viewed, and the lasting impact of best/ worst days are my favorite.

44. Some obstacles in using this text are mainly the talk of “teenage” things. Sex, smoking, drinking, and cursing are all used in the text. Some scenes portraying women’s body can be graphic and in some opinions objectifying. Also, death is a really heavy subject to talk about for many teens.

a.       For students: Some students made chortle when they hear the word breast or when a sexual scene arises. Students may struggle with talking about death because they made be able to relate it to a similar experience of a friend dying.

b.      Parents and administrators: may not be happy with the idea of sex and drinking being “taught” in the classroom. My rational is that all these scenes are used to prove a point. Most teens are already familiar with these topics through social media and television. Although there are sex scenes, it is mostly talk of it and is in no way descriptive. As for the scenes of a woman’s body, it is something students are realizing at that and would be able to open up a line about respecting each other and all the topics that come with puberty. Parents and administrators may not want a description of what her body looks like but again it’s used to prove a point and is helpful to the story.

55. John Green is amazing. He has online resources such as his YouTube channel and Penguin Book guidelines to teaching the text with Common Core Standards. (Link to guidelines in blog.) 

Ideas and Book Guide:   http://www.penguin.com/static/images/yr/pdf/JohnGreen_Guide_june_2014.pdf