History Literature / LookingForAlaska

The book won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association, but was also named the association's most challenged book of 2015 and fourth-most challenged book of the 2010s due to its inclusion of profanity, drug and alcohol use, and sex. Several American schools additionally banned or attempted to ban the book, considering it unsuitable for teenagers at best and pornographic at worst. Green has responded to several of these situations through his Website/YouTube channel WebVideo/{{vlogbrothers}}; one response is in a video fittingly titled [[https://youtu.be/fHMPtYvZ8tM "I Am Not A Pornographer"]].

''Looking for Alaska'' is a young adult novel by Creator/JohnGreen, and his debut novel. It was released in 2005 and won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award, and tells the ComingOfAgeStory of a boy named Miles Halter, who is nicknamed "Pudge" (so called [[IronicNickname because of his infernal skinniness]]) and has a hobby of memorizing the last words of famous people.

The book is unique for having UnusualChapterNumbers based around a two-part structure: "Before", which counts down the days to the story's climax, and "After", which shows the characters' reactions to it. The style was inspired by a habit Green observed of people viewing their histories through the lenses of before and after important events, and by extension newscasters' statements that [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11]] would become such a dividing line for world history.

The book is unique for having UnusualChapterNumbers based around a two-part structure: "Before", which counts down the days to the story's climax, and "After", which shows the characters' reactions to it. The style was inspired by a habit Green observed of people viewing their histories through the lenses of before and after important events, and by extension newscasters' statements that 9/11 would become such a dividing line for world history.

-->-- '''Miles "Pudge" Halter''' about Alaska

->''"I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]], like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane."''

An official adaptation of ''Looking for Alaska'' was in the works for [[DevelopmentHell quite some time]], with the initial rights to make a [[TheFilmOfTheBook film of the book]] being sold to Creator/{{Paramount}} shortly after the novel's release. The project was almost instantly backburnered due to lack of interest from the studio, but after the success of Green's breakout novel ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' and its film adaptation almost a decade later, they reconsidered and the ''Alaska'' film began taking shape. It was slated to be directed by Rebecca Thomas with a screenplay by Creator/SarahPolley and set to begin production early in 2016, but saw a perfect storm of issues, including casting and scheduling problems alongside [[http://papertownsy.tumblr.com/post/139573452996/looks-like-the-looking-for-alaska-movie-has-become tension between Green and Paramount]], that led to it being shelved indefinitely.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Between Miles and Alaska. ''Oh, so much''. [[spoiler:Remains unresolved due to Alaska's death.]] [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by the fact that Alaska [[spoiler:ended their hookup with an enticing "to be continued?", which eats away at Miles after her death]].

->''UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison's last words were: "It's very beautiful over there." I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope it's beautiful.''

''Looking for Alaska'' is a young adult novel by Creator/JohnGreen, and his debut novel. It was released in 2005 and won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award. It is the ComingOfAgeStory of a boy named Miles Halter, who is nicknamed "Pudge" (so called [[IronicNickname because of his infernal skinniness]]) and has a hobby of memorizing the last words of famous people.

''Looking for Alaska'' is a young adult novel by Creator/JohnGreen. Green's debut novel, it was released in 2005 and won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award. It is the ComingOfAgeStory of a boy named Miles Halter, who is nicknamed "Pudge" (so called [[IronicNickname because of his infernal skinniness]]) and has a hobby of memorizing the last words of famous people.

An official adaptation of ''Looking for Alaska'' was in the works for [[DevelopmentHell quite some time]], with the initial rights to make a [[TheFilmOfTheBook film of the book]] being sold to Creator/{{Paramount}} shortly after the novel's release. The project was almost instantly shelved due to lack of interest from Paramount, but after the success of Green's breakout novel ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' and its film adaptation, the studio reconsidered and the ''Alaska'' film began taking shape. It was slated to be directed by Rebecca Thomas with a screenplay by Sarah Polley and set to begin production early in 2016, but saw a perfect storm of issues, including casting and scheduling problems alongside [[http://papertownsy.tumblr.com/post/139573452996/looks-like-the-looking-for-alaska-movie-has-become tension between Green and Paramount]], that led to it being shelved indefinitely.

However, in May of 2018, Green announced that an ''Alaska'' adaptation would finally see the light of day -- but for the small screen instead of the big, as [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/john-greens-looking-alaska-tv-series-josh-schwartz-set-at-hulu-1110571 an 8-episode limited TV series]] based on the novel was optioned by Paramount. It was released through Hulu on October 18, 2019, and was helmed by Josh Schwartz (creator of ''Series/TheOC''), who had been trying to negotiate an adaptation of the novel for over a decade. You can find the miniseries' page [[Series/LookingForAlaska here.]]