Talk:Looking for Alaska

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Proposed Changes

1. The current text is not so hotsy, totsy. It should not be improved.
2. This book won the ALA's Printz award. That should be here. A link should be made to the ALA's Printz award page.
3. This author said he intended this book for ages 14 and up. That should be here. A link should be made to the As If Authors page where he said this.
4. This author has his own web site and MySpace, etc. Those links should be here or somewhere
5. This author somehow got pictures of himself jumping for joy and kissing his parents when he got the call that he won the ALA award. I think that is very, well, cute, and interesting that such a moment got caught in the act, so to speak. So that could be mentioned here or on a John Green page.
6. The author is a former employee of the ALA. That should be here.
7. I am NOT proposing that a link on my own site discussing the book and some of its raunchier sections be placed here, or that any of the raunchy text of the book be placed here either, or anything of any controversial content. I am only looking to add encyclopedic info from the ALA or from the author himself.

Any ideas? --SafeLibraries 01:06, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

I've reedited the text somewhat. I'd be interested to know what you think. Czolgolz 13:40, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, great, much better. Thanks. Remember, I'm just another editor like you. I hope you continue to make great edits. --SafeLibraries 00:34, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for catching all my typos! Czolgolz 20:08, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

does anyone think that the connection with the Byronic Hero should be noted?

Web sites to consider:

• What To Do About Sexually Explicit Teen Books, including posts by author John Green on As If! Authors Support Intellectual Freedom blog.

More soon. --SafeLibraries 22:13, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

• How the ALA (American Library Association) Pushes Porn on our Children
• Voices In My Head (Brent's Blog) - March 30th, 2006
• John Green's MySpace
• 'You're Reading...What?', Wall Street Journal, 24 June 2005
• PABBIS News (search for Looking For Alaska)

More perhaps. --SafeLibraries 03:51, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Anybody out there? --SafeLibraries 23:38, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

"Green attended Indian Springs School, a boarding and day school outside of Birmingham, Alabama. During the time he was a student there, a student died under circumstances similar to one of the characters in the novel.[10][11] According to John Green himself at a book talk in Rivermont Collegiate on October 19, 2006, he got the idea of Takumi's "fox hat" from a Filipino friend who wore a similar hat while playing pranks at Indian Springs School. From the same book talk, Green also stated that the "possessed" swan in Culver Creek came from his student life at Indian Springs School as well, where there was also a swan of similar nature on the campus. The two pranks that occur in the book are similar to pranks that Green pulled at his high school.[12] Green has also stated, while giving a talk at Indian Springs, that several of Culver Creek's teachers are direct caricatures of multiple faculty members at Indian Springs."

Both points are not controversy and should be in a different section or removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.236.69.142 (talk) 23:39, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

John Green

John Green c. 1978- Birth Date: c. 1978 Year of Birth: 1978 Table of Contents: Career</A> Further Readings About the Author</A> Media Adaptations</A> Personal Information</A> Sidelights</A> Source Citation</A> Writings by the Author</A> Works in Progress</A> Personal Information: Born c. 1978. Education: Graduated college in 2000. Addresses: Home: Chicago, IL. Agent: c/o Dutton Children's Books Publicity, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014. E-mail: john@sparksflyup.com. Education: Entry updated: 07/07/2006 Career: Worked as a chaplain in a children's hospital; Booklist, Chicago, IL, production editor and book reviewer. <A NAME="WritingsByTheAuthor"></A> WRITINGS: Looking for Alaska (young-adult novel), Dutton Children's Books (New York, NY), 2005. Contributor of scripts to radio, including All Things Considered, National Public Radio, and to WBEZ, Chicago; contributor to national magazines. Works in Progress: <A NAME="WorksInProgress"></A>An Abundance of Katherines. Media Adaptations: <A NAME="MediaAdaptations"></A>Looking for Alaska has been adapted as a film of the same title, directed by Josh Schwartz, expected 2006. <A NAME="Sidelights"></A> "Sidelights" John Green worked briefly as a chaplain at a children's hospital following his college graduation, a position he credits with giving him a great deal of insight into the thoughts of teenagers. He then moved on to Booklist, starting off as a temp and working his way up to production editor and occasional book reviewer. In addition, he contributes frequently to National Public Radio (NPR)'s All Things Considered, and to Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ. He got his start writing for NPR thanks to a work-related correspondence for Booklist with writer Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who had a periodic program on WBEZ. Rosenthal found Green's e-mails entertaining and asked if he had ever written any short pieces that might be suitable for radio. Although he had not, Green claimed to have a few things that were appropriate; he then promptly went home and wrote several brief, humorous articles. Rosenthal selected one of them, "Nine Girls I've Kissed and What I Learned about Them from Google," and aired it. Several additional articles followed, and eventually Green found himself recording a piece for All Things Considered. In an interview for MediaBistro, Green explained what it's like to write for the radio: "I have no idea what would be good for the air. But I've always read my writing aloud to myself. ... What I later learned is that when you're writing for the radio, you have to dispense with flashy writing and abundant adjectives in favor of action verbs and funny jokes. Writing for the radio needs to be very, very tight, because people get bored easily." Green's young-adult novel, Looking for Alaska, is about a young man named Miles "Pudge" Halter, who leaves his home in Florida to attend Culver Creek, a boarding school in Birmingham, Alabama. The Alaska in the title is not the state, but a girl Pudge meets in school and who is the driving force of the clique that adopts Pudge. Neither popular nor outgoing at his previous school, Pudge now finds himself part of a colorful group that includes a trailer-park kid with an eerie memory whose name is Chip but goes by the nickname Colonel; a Japanese student named Takumi; a Romanian girl named Lara; and, of course, Alaska. His new friends are brilliant, willing to discuss Edna St. Vincent Millay and W.H. Auden, but they are also troublemakers with a tendency to drink in the woods and smoke in the school bathrooms. This insistence on bucking the system seems intriguing to Pudge, until Alaska's extreme behavior gets her killed in a drunken collision with a police car, an incident that may or may not have been a suicide. Pudge, who has always had a fascination with the last words of famous people, suddenly finds himself facing death on a very personal level. Peter D. Sieruta, in a review for Horn Book, called Green's work a "mature novel, peopled with intelligent characters who talk smart, yet don't always behave that way, and are thus notably complex and realistically portrayed teenagers." A contributor to Publishers Weekly remarked that "the novel's chief appeal lies in Miles's well-articulated lust and his initial excitement about being on his own for the first time." School Library Journal contributor Johanna Lewis commented that "Miles's narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious straggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books critic Deborah Stevenson concluded that "Green gives the time-tested plot of boarding-school maturation its full and considerable due, evoking the substantial appeal of the situation's hothouse intensity, heady independence, and endless possibilities." Green himself admits that his own boarding school experience was a source of material for the book. In an interview for PenguinPutnam.com, he remarked: "I like writing for teenagers because big questions--about love and religion and compassion and grief--matter to teens in a very visceral way. And it's fun to write teenage characters. They're funny and clever and feel so much so intensely." <A NAME="FurtherReadingsAbouttheAuthor"></A> FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: PERIODICALS Booklist, March 1, 2005, Ilene Cooper, "Last Words from a First Novelist," interview with John Green, p. 1181. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, February, 2005, Deborah Stevenson, review of Looking for Alaska, p. 252. Horn Book, March-April, 2005, Peter D. Sieruta, review of Looking for Alaska, p. 201. Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2005, review of Looking for Alaska, p. 287. Kliatt, March, 2005, Paula Rohrlick, review of Looking for Alaska, p. 12. Philadelphia Inquirer, March 30, 2005, Katie Haegele, "Private-School Pranks, Perhaps Worse, in Looking for Alaska." Publishers Weekly, February 7, 2005, review of Looking for Alaska, p. 61; July 25, 2005, "The O.C. Cools off with John Green's YA Novel, Looking for Alaska," p. 8. School Library Journal, February, 2005, Johanna Lewis, review of Looking for Alaska, p. 136. ONLINE BookPage.com, http:// www.bookpage.com/ (August 30, 2005), "John Green." Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/ (August 30, 2005), "John Green." MediaBistro.com, http: //www.mediabistro.com/ (August 30, 2005), "Pop Quiz: John Green." Penguin Putnam Web site, http://www.penguinputnam.com/ (August 30, 2005), "Q&A with Author John Green." SparksFlyUp.com, http: //www.sparksflyup.com/ (August 30, 2005), "A Shout in the Street: A Bit about John Green." Teenreads.com, http:/ / www.teenreads.com/ (August 30, 2005), "John Green."* Source: Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2006. Source Database: Contemporary Authors Online PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000163364

PABBIS

PABBIS - Parents Against Bad Books In Schools has relevant information:

PABBIS - Parents Against Bad Books In Schools

6 September 2006 News Release www.pabbis.com

Back To School In Fairfax County, Virginia With Superintendent Dale

Alice On Her Way, a book with oral sex, homosexuality, condoms and masturbation is still in Fox Mill ES (Principal Patricia Sheehy) and 6 middle schools; Franklin MS - Principal Sharon Eisenberg, Frost MS - Principal Marti Jackson, Glasgow MS - Principal Deirdre Lavery, Hughes MS - Principal Deborah Jackson, Key MS - Principal Penny Myers, and Stone MS - Principal Kenneth Gaudreault. See 6 June 2006 PABBIS News for more information on this book.

In 11 April 2006 PABBIS News we reported Looking for Alaska, just published in 2005 and containing oral sex, porn, 49 uses of s-word variants, 34 uses of f-word variants and other controversial language and material, was already in 16 Fairfax County schools including 3 middle schools (Frost - Principal Marti Jackson, Hughes - Principal Deborah Jackson, Key - Principal Penny Myers). Since then FCPS Superintendent Dale has acquired additional copies of this book and it is now in 27 Fairfax County schools including 5 middle schools. The new middle schools are Jackson - Principal Carol Robinson, and Poe - Principal Sonya Swansbrough.

The FCPS library catalog now states Looking for Alaska is a Virginia Readers' Choice nominee for High School. Virginia Readers' Choice books are selected by the VIRGINIA STATE READING ASSOCIATION (VSRA), an affiliate of the International Reading Association. The VSRA website says Virginia Readers' Choice books are recommended in association with THE VIRGINIA EDUCATIONAL MEDIA ASSOCIATION, THE VIRGINIA LIBRARY ASSOCIATION and THE LIBRARY OF VIRGINIA YOUTH SERVICES. The FCPS library catalog notes all VSRA Virginia Readers' Choice nominee books.

The VSRA has nine Virginia Readers' Choice 2006-2007 High School books in addition to Looking for Alaska. The VSRA annotation for Looking for Alaska doesn't mention the oral sex, porn, extensive foul language or anything at all about controversial material.

....

Superintendent Dale: Teaching Fairfax County Public School Children about Oral Sex, Porn, Homosexuality, Masturbation and other Key Virginia Standards of Learning Objectives

---

11 April 2006

Looking for an Explanation from FCPS Superintendent Dale - How low will you go?

Looking for Alaska was only published in 2005 but it has been quickly introduced into Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).

The FCPS library catalog uses the innocuous subject terms Interpersonal Relations, Boarding schools, Schools, and Death for this book. Looking for Alaska is about a 16-year old boy with no friends who goes off to boarding school. He is obsessed with people’s last words. At boarding school he becomes friends with his roommate and a girl named Alaska. He thinks Alaska is the “the hottest girl in all of human history."

The FCPS library catalog review describes Alaska in the following manner: "Other than her occasional hollow, feminist diatribes, Alaska is mostly male fantasy-a curvy babe who loves sex and can drink guys under the table." While driving drunk Alaska dies in a wreck. The boy and his roommate try to figure out if the wreck was an accident or if it really was a suicide. The FCPS review says, "Theological questions from their religion class add some introspective gloss. But the novel's chief appeal lies in [the main character's] well-articulated lust and his initial excitement about being on his own for the first time."

Looking for Alaska is not a very long book but it is littered with foul language including 11 references to oral sex, 49 uses of s-word variants, 34 uses of f-word variants, 20 uses of ba****d or bi**h, 20 uses of sex, and so on. See the PABBIS Excerpts section for a more complete and disgusting list.

Here are some examples of the action and situations in this book:

- The main character starts smoking cigarettes and drinking at school. His friends are very heavy smokers and drinkers. Acquiring cigarettes and booze, and hiding their smoking and drinking from the school administrator is a large part of the book.

- The main character watches a porn movie with Alaska called "The Bi**hes of Madison County" in which a man gives woman oral sex. Later there is more sex in the porn movie [much more explicitly described in the book] in which the "guy knelt behind her." The main character "couldn't help but take mental notes." He can't deny to Alaska that "this doesn't turn [him] on."

- The main character receives oral sex from a girl in the school but they can't do it "right" until Alaska shows them how by demonstrating on "a tube of toothpaste, and showed us. In detail. Never have I so wanted to be Crest Complete." They go back to the girl's room to try again after this demonstration and the book describes his "first orgasm with a girl."

- After Alaska dies the main character dreams about her flying naked into his room: "Her breasts, which I had only felt very briefly and in the dark, are luminously full as they hang down from her body. She hovers inches above me.. Hi, I say. I’ve missed you. You look good.... So do you. I’m so naked, she says and laughs. How did I get so naked. I just want you to stay, I say. No.. her weight falls dead on me, crushing my chest.. cold and wet.. Her head is split in half and a pink-gray sludge oozes from the fracture in her skull and drips onto my face, and she stinks of formaldehyde and rotting meat. I gag and push her off me, terrified."

- After Alaska dies there is a class prank in which they get a male stripper to pretend to be a "preeminent scholar of deviant sexuality in adolescents." The main character’s dad helps them fool the administrator into getting this fake scholar invited to talk as junior class speaker on Speaker Day. During the speech they get a girl to stand up and say, "You’re so hot! I’d weesh you’d shut up and take off your clothes." The fake speaker talks to her and she says, "I’m not keeding! Take off your clothes.. the fake speaker says, All right, then.. This one’s for Alaska. As the fast pumping bass of Prince’s Get Off started.. [he stripped down to his] black leather [briefs]."

Looking for Alaska is already in 16 Fairfax County schools including 3 middle schools (Frost - Principal Marti Jackson, Hughes - Principal Deborah Jackson, Key - Principal Sharon Eisenberg)!

Not surprisingly Looking for Alaska is a 2006 American Library Association (ALA) Top 10 Best Books for Young Adults winner. The ALA considers "young adults" to be 12 - 18 years old. It is always interesting to see what type of book content the ALA thinks is, not only acceptable for children as young as 12-years old, but in the minds of the ALA is the "Best" literature for them. To the ALA their "Young Adult" books are a very good way to push smutty, explicit and graphic material to children. It is sad to see Superintendent Dale and the FCPS system working hand-in-hand with them.

With the addition of Looking for Alaska there are now 148 books in the PABBIS Excerpts section. See the Looking for Alaska excerpts for a more complete description of the controversial content.

Thanks to SafeLibraries.org for their detailed information about the language in this book! Click Here for more information from their website on how the ALA and their shills are pushing Looking for Alaska on children.

Your Property Tax Money Hard at Work "Educating" Public School Children about Sex, Oral Sex, Porn, Drinking and other Key Virginia Standards of Learning Objectives —The preceding unsigned comment was added by HalfShadow (talk • contribs) 02:10, 14 March 2007 (UTC).

Could someone without prejudice boil this down and place it underneath the "confuence of minds" category? Because I believe Looking for Alaska is an excelent book and if I was to pick out the "important" pieces of this, I would accidentally make it a joke. Damn. It's my own state that's screwing with my literature. No Stahr (talk) 02:03, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

Who?

Who is Weber and Neustadter by the way? Chandelia16 (talk) 09:20, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber were the scriptwriters who worked on film adaptations of The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns, and were at one point called in to write and produce a film version of Looking for Alaska (since shelved). It's been properly cited now (Hollywood Reporter). - Reidgreg (talk) 17:10, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

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Copyedit

@NeoBatfreak: and interested parties, I've started copyedit on the article. I've done a lot of minor tweaks and condensed the plot section from about 900 to 620 words, 6 to 4 paragraphs, in line with WP:NOVELPLOT. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to express them. I tend to feel that the MOS is a collection of guidelines to help improve articles but that each article has its own needs. I should return in a few hours for another pass, maybe add a bit to the lead. - Reidgreg (talk) 05:39, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

• I added a tiny bit to the lead. I would have liked to add more but felt I was heading toward original research (thematic analysis)
• Some might consider the Characters section inessential, but while it restates some information from Plot I feel it serves this article. The Holden Caufield factoid could use a reference, but what I found looked like the dust jacket (need original sources), a blogger and an interview that doesn't particularly say who is making the comparisons.
• I'm not positive of the intended meaning of several of Culver Creek's teachers are direct caricatures of multiple faculty members. I feel like "multiple" could be cut as redundant, but perhaps that would also require changing "caricatures" to "composites"?

That's it for now. I welcome any comments or advice. - Reidgreg (talk) 14:36, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

@Mr. Granger: about that "top ten most challenged books for 2015", this was something I'd passed several times but a Guild of Copy Editors coordinator was kind enough to check my work and spotted it. Hyphenating most-challenged is a minor point of clarity and MOS:PMC says it's alright to correct such typos in quotes without comment. The sourced ALA .pdf actually has "Top Ten Most Challenged Books in 2015" (italics added, quotes and title case are theirs), while the webpage with the list itself calls it "the top ten most frequently challenged books of 2015" (italics added, lowercase theirs). I suppose I should have removed the quotation marks, they aren't really needed, and added that link as an additional reference. (Whew, that's a lot of explanation for a hyphen I can barely spot in the diff!) At any rate, I appreciate your due diligence and I'll leave it to you and the editors of this page. - Reidgreg (talk) 15:26, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

Right, MOS:PMC says to correct trivial errors, not stylistic choices. I see no reason to think that the lack of a hyphen in the source is an error.

I've removed the quotation marks and restored the hyphen—hopefully that resolves the issue. —Granger (talk · contribs) 16:02, 18 October 2016 (UTC)

Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?Lepeletier (talk) 19:15, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

For the most part, the article is relevant to the book. The only time is trails from that is when they are talking about John Green and about other ways that the book was controversial. The information under the controversial heading is a bit distracting and irrelevant but it still provides insight to how the book made an impact.Lepeletier (talk) 19:15, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?Lepeletier (talk) 19:15, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

There are a few facts that are not referenced in the article. There are a few statements that are written, especially at the ends of the paragraphs, that are stated without references to see where the fact came from. Lepeletier (talk) 19:15, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

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Proposed Revisions to Article

One of the main provisions I intent to add to the article is to elaborate on the controversies section. I will add more specifically to the Depew High School controversy and also add to the Marion, Kentucky controversy. Both of the challenges have more context that is not included in the description in the current Wikipedia page. I believe that there is much more relating to each challenge which overall describes the backlash to Looking for Alaska. For example, in the Marion County challenge, parents specifically said that the book would contribute to teen pregnancy; this is very significant and overall will allow for the reader of the Wikipedia novel to understand much more clearly the extent of book challenges as a whole. Additionally, I intend to create a new section, labelled "Themes", to discuss the major themes present in the novel such as the labyrinth, death, and friendship. I plan to add this section because as the page is, I feel as though it does not focus enough on the literary aspects of the novel. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gmartinez1255 (talk • contribs) 21:28, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

I plan to make revisions to the Looking for Alaska Wikipedia page as well by adding a "themes" section and adding more to the controversies on the novel, as stated by Gmartinez1255. For example, I plan to add controversies in allowing this book in school curriculum in certain areas, such as Karns Middle School in Knox County as well as in Leesburg. As for the themes section, I believe that it is important to add the themes of this novel because of all of the controversy surrounding certain ones, like the use of alcohol and drugs by teenagers. Even though some are controversial, it is important that the descriptions of these themes stay objective and show no bias. The themes section will lead the reader to come to their own conclusions about them. Sarah cox17 (talk) 04:38, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

Proposed Changes to Article

In order to create a more organized and helpful article, I have compiled a list of changes I would like to make and some new sources to help me with these changes. Hopefully these will make this page more organized, more diverse in sources, and eliminate bias.

-Making sure the article is arranged according to wikipedia's suggested outline of pages.

-Add a reception section.

-Change the controversy organization- perhaps this could be included in reception, and maybe just list the reasons for controversy as well as a few examples of cases, instead of the format it's in now. This would include the years that the ALA has cited this book in its most banned list.

-The themes section is composed entirely of one critic's ideas- add more ideas on these themes as seen through book reviews etc.

-Some minor grammatical changes, and phrasing changes to avoid bias

-Few minor lead section edits for clarification, and making sure it answers who/what the article is about, and why this is important.

Bibliography for relevant research so far (includes a piece with a John Green interview, and some book reviews):

Barkdoll, Jayme K., and Lisa Scherff. ""Literature is Not a Cold, Dead Place": An Interview with John Green." English Journal 97.3 (2008): 67-71. ProQuest Central, Research Library. Web.

Gallo, Don. "The very Best Possibilities, Part Two." English Journal 95.5 (2006): 107-10. ProQuest Central, Research Library. Web.

"Looking for Alaska is Captivating." University Wire 2017. ProQuest Central. Web. <http://proxy.library.georgetown.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1973561652?accountid=11091>.

Ritchie, John. "Looking for Alaska." ALAN Review 32.3 (2005): 36. ProQuest Central. Web.

--Amc475 (talk) 00:47, 13 April 2018 (UTC)

Proposed Changes

Here are some proposed changes I am hoping to make to this article

1. Fuller Lead Section: The current lead section does not comply with the Wikipedia guidelines for articles about novels. The lead section should outline the contents of the article. Therefore, I am looking to write a three-four paragraph section that summarizes the sections to follow.

2. Positive Reception: Though the challenges this novel has faced deserve a substantial section, it omits an adequate section dedicated to the positive reviews and awards this novel has received. Many librarians and critics praise the book and the author has provided a list of awards this novel has received on his website.

3. Sources for Themes: Many of the claims are unsourced, and therefore the article reads more like a personal evaluation. I have found sources to backup some of the un-cited claims in the article.

4. Controversy Section: I will restructure the controversy section so that the challenges are in chronological order.

5. Minor Mechanical Errors: I will correct some grammatical errors and rewrite some sentences for clarity and precision.

Isabelleb10 (talk) 19:48, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Do you the article could be more appealing and interesting to readers by including more images in the article? Particularly one of the Hulu Series in the Adaptation section?Nicolelamp (talk) 17:07, 14 October 2020 (UTC)