Looking for Alaska by John Green

 Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska. New York, NY: Dutton Books.

 Miles is obsessed with learning the last words said by famous people and with reading the biographies of writers. He has left his parents in Florida so that he can go to boarding school, the one his dad has gone to as well. His parents warn him to behave and do well, but little does he know what he is in store for. His roommate Chip, a.k.a The Colonel, is friends with an interesting group of people; one of those people is the amazingly charming and beautiful Alaska. Alaska has a larger than life personality that makes it hard for Miles not to fall in love with her. Once he has the chance to finally kiss Alaska and truly accept that he loves her, it is all taken away: Alaska dies. Now he and his friends are in the search for the truth behind her death in the hopes that they can get some closer.

The major strengths of this book is that it has a lot of themes and topics that can be discussed with students, particularly high school students, such as drug an alcohol use, friendships, death, suicide, parent-child relationships, and dating. As I was reading I went through a lot of emotions because the author included humor, drama, love, and death, so it felt like being on a rollercoaster that I would totally ride again.

I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars!