10th Grade Summer Reading Assignment: Entry Four: Looking For Alaska

The reason I chose Looking For Alaska by John Green had nothing to do with the book itself. Rather, My mother, at the time, was reading The Fault in Our Stars at one of my brother's (Cole) swim meets. I looked down at it and realized the author was also John Green, and at that exact moment a visual image of the book list popped into my head. I remembered that another book, Looking For Alaska, of John Green's was on it. I knew that The Fault in Our Stars was a great book, so I decided to choose his other book for the project.

I don't really have any personal connections that are un-personal enough to where I would be willing to share them, but let's just say that I've been through a period in my life where I was stuck in a labyrinth of my own and couldn't find the way out. Little did I know a that time that the way out was to get help, to let everyone know I was struggling and to admit to myself that I was weak. This connects to Alaska and her labyrinth because every time Pudge would try to ask if she was okay or ask what was wrong or bothering her, she would just say that she wasn't asking who, what, where, when or why questions right now.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book that is just different, or a book that is enticing and a page turner, or even someone who is just looking for an enjoyable yet quick afternoon read. This is because the novel is quite different from other books, and centers more around the obstacles of a 'typical' (not to be put stereotypically) high school teenager that they have to face and the decisions, involving love, that they have to make. It is structured in a way without chapters, at times making it difficult to put down, not that you would want to anyway, and the unanswered questions it leaves you with forces you to want to read straight through to the end.

10th Grade Summer Reading Assignment: Entry Three: Looking For Alaska

"'This is going to end poorly,' he said to himself.
And then I was asleep. That deep, can-still-taste-her-in-my-mouth sleep,?'that sleep that is not particularly restful but is difficult to wake up from all the same. And then I heard the phone ring. I think. And I think, although I can't know, that I felt Alaska get up. I think I heard her leave. I think. How long she was gone is impossible to know.
But the Colonel and I both woke up when she returned, whenever that was, because she slammed the door. She was sobbing, like that post-Thanksgiving morning but worse.
'I have to get out of here!' she cried.
'What's wrong?' I asked.
'I forgot! God, how many times can I f*** up?' she said. I didn't even have time to wonder what she forgot before she screamed 'I JUST HAVE TO GO. HELP ME GET OUT OF HERE!'"

This section of the novel occurs after Alaska dare Pudge to make out with her, which obviously, he does. It then goes on to describe the scene, and comes to the selection that I have chosen. This is meant to hook the reader in two ways. The first is that it is highly enticing. The description and the 'I think' and 'I can't know' in the passage make you want to read faster. the more and more you read in this particular piece of the novel, the more and more questions you are bombarded with.

The second way it is meant to hook you goes back to the book structure. This piece is written under the last day, right before it switches over to the After half of the book. it also doesn't tell you what she forgot, forcing you to read on out of sheer curiosity.