Looking for Alaska won the Printz Award for teen lit and is the first novel of NPR’s John Green. This is a decent coming of age story of a 16-year old who is sent to a boarding school for intelligent high schoolers. Miles quickly becomes friends with his roommate, a prankster nicknamed “the Colonel”, a rapping Asian boy and his new obsession, Alaska. There is some great writing here especially concerning the growing friendships of Miles, the Colonel and Alaska, who each subtly reveal what makes them tick. The book, however, grows to a predictable conclusion, then wanders aimlessly for dozens of pages more. This is a decent book worth reading, though I’m surprised it’s an award winner.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
What I'm Reading -- Looking for Alaska by John Green
Looking for Alaska won the Printz Award for teen lit and is the first novel of NPR’s John Green. This is a decent coming of age story of a 16-year old who is sent to a boarding school for intelligent high schoolers. Miles quickly becomes friends with his roommate, a prankster nicknamed “the Colonel”, a rapping Asian boy and his new obsession, Alaska. There is some great writing here especially concerning the growing friendships of Miles, the Colonel and Alaska, who each subtly reveal what makes them tick. The book, however, grows to a predictable conclusion, then wanders aimlessly for dozens of pages more. This is a decent book worth reading, though I’m surprised it’s an award winner.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
You know, I still find it confusing that her name was Alaska. I remember liking the book, but the author himself (have you seen that blog) and other things published last year more. Like Twilight, A Certain Slant of Light and Peeps.
Post a Comment