“The week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party.”

From John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

For his junior year of high school, Miles is leaving Florida to go to a boarding school out of state with the hope of finding some excitement in life.  Miles is obsessed with living a life that will be memorable and influential to others when he dies (it’s one of his “things”).  Miles is not rich, so he is instantly not popular with the rich kids at school (Weekday Warriors), but he is quickly drafted into the less-popular group of year-round (and unique) students.  He connects best with 4 students: “Colonel” (his roommate Chip), Takumi, Lara, and the gorgeous and unafraid Alaska.  Miles is attracted to Alaska for her wild emotions and unheeding attitude toward life.  The kids spend their time pranking the rich kids, smoking and getting rid of the smoke, avoiding the school’s headmaster, and just enjoying life any way that they can.  He is living life to the fullest and savoring every minute, but when a tragedy rocks Miles’ world, he is forced to reevaluate everything that he thought he knew.  Can he still live a life that will inspire others after he’s gone some day?

John Green delivers a realistic look into teenage life, love, and loss with this book.  The dialog is realistic and funny.  The situations that Miles, Alaska, & Co. find themselves in are wild, but they are also realistic.  There are mature situations in this book, but nothing is ever presented to be erotic or vulgar; everything is developed to show the development that Miles undergoes in his life while at school.  No spoilers, but there is a character death that leaves the other characters confused, lost, and struggling with grief.  Green uses this book to examine the “why” questions that death leaves behind for the living; he also uses Looking for Alaska to show that life is still worth living, if you can just find a way to honor the life that was lived.