Looking for Alaska by John Green

Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska: A novel. New York: Dutton Children's Books. 

 Miles Halter (later nicknamed "Pudge") is beginning his Junior year of high school at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Birmingham Alabama. He instantly makes friends with his new room mate Chip Martin (nicknamed "The Colonel").  The night before school starts Pudge is kidnapped and thrown into the lake by a group of kids the Colonel has nicknamed "The Weekday Warriors".  Pudge grows close to Chip and also makes friends with Takumi, Laura, and Alaska.  Laura and Pudge have a short-lived romance but Pudge is falling deeper in love with Alaska.  The group of friends plays a revenge prank on The Weekday Warriors and celebrate afterwards. Alaska has to leave in a hurry in the middle of the night after receiving a phone call and Chip and Pudge help plan her escape from school. The next morning they find out that Alaska was in a car accident and has died.  The two friends have to come to terms with her death by asking questions and finding answers for themselves.

 In this realistic fiction, dealing with grief is a major theme that makes this book so emotionally powerful.  Dealing with those emotions and coming to terms with the shock of death are themes that young adults can relate to if they have had or are going through an experience with death.  For this reason, I think that this book strengths lies in the fact that it is so real and relatable to many young adults. The relationships, pranks, school life, destructive behaviors, and tragic deaths are a part of almost every teen's life and reading this book is both powerful and comforting.