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.