Looking for Alaska is a story about a boy, Miles, who lives his home to seek 'The Great Perhaps'. He goes to Culver Creek, a boarding school, where he meets new friends that he absolutely loves and, most importantly, Alaska Young, a clever, thrill-seeking, danger-loving, 'dead sexy' ( I quote from the blurb) girl who will change Miles' life forever.
Looking for Alaska was beautiful, tragic, hilarious, shocking and unexpected. This is not just another teenage novel about adolescent angst and infatuation. It's a coming-of-age story, a mystery, a love story and a tragedy.
The characters are realistic, and the main character and first-person narrator Miles (who is nick-named Pudge early in the book) is a clever and likeable guy without being too overly perfect. And Pudge's best friend, known as the Colonel, is just as likeable but flawed.
There's a lot of sex/drugs/alcohol in this book but it's also one of the best books I've ever read and I don't think the sex/drugs/alcohol detract from how good it is.
John Green has written 3 and a half books (one book was co-written with David Leviathan) and Looking for Alaska was his first book. I'm amazed that someone who had never written before could produce something this moving and incredible, just like that! If I ever write a book like this, I'll be head-over-heels.
Butterflies: 9 out of 10
Recommended for people: who are over 15, mature and can understand the points that John Green raised in the video in my post 'how far is too far in teenage books'
Warnings: lots of sex, smoking and alcohol, but the messages are right in the end
I apologise MUCHLY for the lack of blogging this past week. (I don't really think muchly works in this sentence but it's a cool word. Also, just look at it for a while. Doesn't it look weird?!)
I was on work experience last week and it was absolutely fantastic! I had so much fun, but I was really tired in the evenings so couldn't blog.
I have finished Looking for Alaska (actually I finished it ages ago...) and two more books after that! I had a lot of time on public transport to fill in, and I'd finished Alaska before work experience so I actually got through The Elegance of the Hedgehog and Dreaming of Amelia last week, plus another book that I read at work experience that I may talk about on here, or may not.
Actually, I think I will. It was interesting. Anyway, that book was Stolen by Lucy Christopher.
So anyway, I have a lot of catching up to do, and I hope to have caught up by the end of this week. My next book is Wuthering Heights so I don't think I'll be starting that for a while as I am not very motivated to do so having heard it is a hard read.
On the plus side, I'm now ahead in my reading! YAY!
NOTE REGARDING EMAILING JOHN GREEN
I found this on his new website:
I do not respond to emails. There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that I like all of the people who email me equally, and I feel like it is totally unfair to reply to some of them and totally impossible to reply to all of them. Also, I want to spend as much of my writing time as possible writing books. (Well, or tweeting.) Furthermore, babies are time-consuming. That said, I read every word of every email I receive.
Sad, hey? Though I do understand. He's heaps more popular than most authors because of his YouTube involvement so he must get a whole heap of emails. Mine would be read, I guess, but what's the point of asking questions that will never be answered?
That said, I commented on the FAQ page of his site, which you can find here (and check out my comment, I'm 'Liz', believe it or not!) but I don't recommend actually READING the questions on that page, as they are all about Looking for Alaska and I don't want to spoil it for you if you plan on reading it.
It has come to my attention that covers play a VERY large role when people are selecting books.
I have just finished reading Looking for Alaska by John Green (and will review it soon I promise!). I bought the book because I had read Paper Towns and really enjoyed so I thought buying another book by John Green would be a good investment. And it was. The book is REALLY REALLY good, though read 'how far is too far in teenage books' if you think you might be offended by some of the content.
I have a MUCH bigger issue with the book than simply the sex, and that is the cover.
My copy of Looking for Alaska is the British version, and the cover looks like this:
Quite nice, yes, HOWEVER the main character in this book is a boy. Most of the main characters are boys. The author is male. Yet this cover suggests that the book is for girls, with the daisy and the curly writing with the heart. The daisy does have significance in the book, but not till very late in the story.
Now I don't know John Green's opinion on this cover (and I am considering emailing him about what he thinks of it) but if I was the author of this book, I would be slightly annoyed. Boys SHOULD read this book, in my opinion! It's definitely not a girly book.
This is the American cover of Looking for Alaska:
Well firstly, this cover is also black, like the British cover, but there is no flower. The candle with the smoke is a reference to events in the book and there is nothing remotely girly or boyish that would distinguish this book as for one gender as opposed to the other.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... covers annoy me sometimes. One of my favourite books, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, originally had a hot pink cover. Just like Alaska, this book is narrated in first person by a BOY and is written by a MALE author. It is not a girly book at all! It's a book about breaking down stereotypes and friendship and love!
So, what do you think? Do covers effect the choices you make when you are choosing a book to read/buy? Boys, would you consider reading Looking for Alaska if you saw the British cover, or would you dismiss it as girly? Please tell me what you think in the comments! Also, do you have any books that you would not originally have read because of the covers but only read because someone recommended them to you?
I'm interested to find out whether other people see the issues with covers I see.
Well, this may be a slightly awkward post for some younger readers, so I warn in advance.
So I am reading Looking for Alaska, by John Green. This book is a book for young adults, I think at very youngest, my age (15). It deals with many issues, including sex, drugs, alcohol and more, that some people may not be happy to read. They may find it offensive or controversial.
I personally do not, but I can understand why some people would, but I think in this case, every instance where these issues are touched on has a very good reason behind it.
John Green, the author, makes videos on YouTube with his brother, and on January 30 2008, he made a video entitled, "I Am Not a Pornographer", which I am embedding here and HIGHLY recommend to be watched if you are (a) planning on reading the book or have read it, (b) think sex/drugs/alcohol in teenage books is a bad thing or (c) want to see a funny author talking to his camera.
Also, it will help this blog entry make much more sense.
I first watched this video before I read Looking for Alaska, and I have to say, it did make me wary about reading the book. But it also reassured me and my ideas about the occurence of sex/drug use/alcohol consumption in teenage books.
I think the way Green portrayed the sex scene in Looking for Alaska really does support the ideas that he suggested it was meant to convey in the video, such as the fact that physical intimacy can never stand in for emotional attachment. Although physical intimacy is an important part of a relationship, particularly in marriage, you cannot simply have that physical intimacy without the emotion. It will leave you feeling empty and unsatisfied.
I believe that sex in teenage books is most definitely not a bad thing. I do think parents have a right to stop their kids reading certain books, and I also think that teenagers should be able to find books that do not have sex in them, but I really do not think that just because a book has sex in it means it should automatically be banned, as was suggested. Green is right when he says that teenagers are wiser than adults often think we are. I picked up the juxtaposing scenes in Looking for Alaska, and I think other teenagers would too.
The drug and alcohol (ab)use in Looking for Alaska are somewhat condemned by the main character, Pudge (Miles) Halter, and also lead to a tragic event. However these issues are present, and some of the messages portrayed are that alcohol can lead to having a good time. But then again, I do not believe that the prescence of drugs and/or alcohol in a book are enough to deem it 'inappropriate'. Often there is a message behind the consumption of these substances.
So overall, I do really recommend Looking for Alaska but I do not promote the issues in it. But I do think the precense of these issues in teenage books is not necessarily a bad thing, but should be looked at closely before being simply deemed 'inappropriate'.
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan is a picture book, but it's definitely not one for children.
The book contains ten short stories, all with very different topics and dealing with very different issues, and all accompanied by Tan's customary beautiful artwork - a combination of scrapbooking, water colours and pen-and-ink drawing.
(As there are multiple stories in the book, I've decided to focus on two in particular)
Distant Rain
"Have you ever wondered what happens to all the poems people write?"
Distant Rain tells the story of these poems. It is a beautifully set out story, with pieces of paper with different handwriting on them all over the pages, some little pieces with just one word, others with a few sentences. They are accompanied by black, white and brown pencil sketches. The story really makes the reader think about how every person in the world has secrets, and what the consequences would be if every person in the world suddenly knew random secrets and emotions from other, anonymous people.
Alert But Not Alarmed
This story tells of a time when the government has forced everyone to store an intercontinetal ballistic missile in their backyard, but the people have started making them pretty and giving them other uses. The story is accompanied by a double-page illustration of these missiles in the neighbourhood, and they do look quite pretty. Through the story, Tan has made a comment about how much of an affect terrorism and war have on our everyday lives. We all know the expression "war is in our own backyards", or something like that, and through this story, Tan is saying that war is closer than we may think it is. However, by saying that the families are converting their missiles into pizza ovens and kennels and even decorating them with patterns and fairylights, Tan is also drawing our attention to the fact that we can do something about war and terrorism, and we can stand up to the government. The missiles are kept by ordinary people, and through this story, Tan is saying that war is not started by governments, but by ordinary people.
Butterflies: 8 out of 10
Recommended for people: aged 10+ if they want to read it on a superficial level, just as a story book, more like 14 or 15+ to read it on a deeper level
Warnings: nothing much... It's just not a picture book for little kids!
I have started reading Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan, and it is absolutely brilliant. Tan is an amazing artist and also a fantastic storyteller.
The book is a picture book, but most definitely not for children. This is not because of anything inappropriate in the book, and I guess some of the stories in the book could be read on a simpler level, but the stories really do have so much more to them than just a simple story. They are about life in the suburbs of a city, but have remarkably strange twists in them. They deal with issues such as family, friendship, growing up (and the loss of innocence that comes with that) and so much more.
Some of the stories are hard to understand and some of them are more observations on life, but the ones that I have read so far are beautiful and haunting.
I'm just going to go finish it now, then review it, and then I'll get started on my next book, Looking for Alaska by John Green, which I bought at the shops this morning. I can't wait to read it!!
I finished! Yay! Here's the review, including features you will see in other reviews.
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton is a huge, epic novel about the lives of two families, the Pickles and the Lambs as they live together in one big house, which is actually called Cloudstreet (hence the name of the book). Both families have come out of tragedy in the countryside to start their new lives in Perth. The families are both complex and fairly dysfunctional, with relationship breakdowns, affairs, and fights frequently occuring. But the families also overcome differences and change the lives of each other and of the entire community.
The book is divided up into big sections, numbered with Roman numerals, and within those sections small headings divide up the rest of the text. These small sections are anything from a few sentences to pages long, which making understanding the plot slightly easier.
One of the hardest things about the book is just how many characters and plot lines there are, which is one of the reasons I made my family representation video, to help others who read it keep track of which family the characters belong to (and to help me).
Some characters have bigger roles than others, for example, out of the kids, Fish and Quick from the Lamb family play a much bigger role than their sisters, and Rose Pickles is a much more important character than her brothers.
Overall, the book was masterfully written and sophisticated in its character development, but personally, the book did not REALLY appeal to me. I found it interesting, but not gripping, and I had no trouble putting it down. I appreciate that it is a great piece of literature, but I felt that I would have preferred a shorter story, rather than one stretched over 20 years. That being said, the book did have a natural ending, and it felt like it ended at a good time with not too many loose ends. Even while writing this review I found myself becoming more and more appreciative of just how hard the book would have been to write and how amazing a writer Tim Winton is.
Butterflies (which are like stars but for this blog): 6 out of 10
Recommended for people: aged 15 and over and with patience and a good appreciation of the triumph of writing that this book is.
Warnings: lots of sex, quite a bit of violence, lots of swearing. Not for the easily offended or anyone younger than about 15. This is a book for adults, not for kids.
Overall, I would recommend this book to another person, if they were the right sort of person.
