Alaska Young, coming of age, Existentialism, famous last words,
Finding Answers in Looking for Alaska by John Green: Review,
Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult
Literature, miles halter John Green’s first novel, Looking for
Alaska, is an inspiring coming of age tale, which follows in the
tradition of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and A
Separate Peace by John Knowles. Each word jumps off the page and
into the hearts and minds of readers. The struggles of long and
lanky Miles Halter, his rebellious roommate Chip, and the
beautiful and bright Alaska Young are divided into two
categories: 1. normal teenage issues from peers to teachers and
grades 2. life’s most difficult existential mysteries involving
man’s search for meaning, love, and death. Miles arrives at the
private boarding school his father attended before him, Culver
Creek, in search of “the Great Perhaps.” An avid reader of
biographies, Miles is drawn to people’s last words, and he is
convinced last words supply a picture of