Looking for Alaska

Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter is bored, lonely, and unchallenged, so he decides to leave his family home in Florida for the Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama. There he finds his math-genius roommate, Chip, sometimes called the Colonel, and the sexy, vivacious, but already taken Alaska Young. Reader Jeff Woodman captures the angst of teen life, and the listener experiences the full range of emotions when a young life ends unexpectedly. This winner of the American Library Association Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature will inspire young people to ask the important questions in life and remind older readers just how important those questions are. R.O. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

February 7, 2005
This ambitious first novel introduces 16-year-old Miles Halter, whose hobby is memorizing famous people's last words. When he chucks his boring existence in Florida to begin this chronicle of his first year at an Alabama boarding school, he recalls the poet Rabelais on his deathbed who said, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." Miles's roommate, the "Colonel," has an interest in drinking and elaborate pranks—pursuits shared by his best friend, Alaska, a bookworm who is also "the hottest girl in all of human history." Alaska has a boyfriend at Vanderbilt, but Miles falls in love with her anyway. Other than her occasional hollow, feminist diatribes, Alaska is mostly male fantasy—a curvy babe who loves sex and can drink guys under the table. Readers may pick up on clues that she is also doomed. Green replaces conventional chapter headings with a foreboding countdown—"ninety-eight days before," "fifty days before"—and Alaska foreshadows her own death twice ("I may die young," she says, "but at least I'll die smart"). After Alaska drives drunk and plows into a police car, Miles and the Colonel puzzle over whether or not she killed herself. Theological questions from their religion class add some introspective gloss. But the novel's chief appeal lies in Miles's well-articulated lust and his initial excitement about being on his own for the first time. Readers will only hope that this is not the last word from this promising new author. Ages 14-up.

Narrator Wil Wheaton treats John Green's characters with the respect they deserve in this new audio edition of the 2006 Printz Award-winning novel. Bored, 16-year-old Miles Halter leaves his family home in Florida for boarding school in Alabama, seeking "the great perhaps." He finds a circle of precocious, prank-loving friends, including his intense roommate Chip (a.k.a. "the Colonel") and the moody, enigmatic dream girl, Alaska, with whom Miles becomes instantly obsessed. Each character shines in Wheaton's portrayal--from the deadpan Miles to the gruffly wise religion teacher to shy Romanian immigrant Lara to Alaska herself, with her brash, larger-than-life vivacity. The dialogue crackles with snark and aching earnestness as the characters struggle to cope with life before and after a terrible tragedy. S.C. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine