Looking for Alaska

 Looking for Alaska by John Green. (Dutton Books for Young Readers, 3 March 2005).

John Green's debut novel is the story of Miles Halter, who is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. 

He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” 

Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Awards and accolades include:

• Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award
• A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
• A New York Times Bestseller •
• A USA Today Bestseller
• NPR’s Top Ten Best-Ever Teen Novels 
• TIME magazine’s 100 Best Young Adult Novels of All Time
• A PBS Great American Read Selection

Looking for Alaska has been banned and challenged since its publication over 20 years ago.  Reasons include: depictions of “alternate sexualities” and “gender ideology” (despite the absence of  LGBTQIA+ characters); containing sexually explicit encounters in detail; bad language; and normalizing dishonesty, hazing, underage drinking, and smoking.

To see Unite Against Book Bans' Book Résumé for the book, click here.