In Looking For Alaska, Miles Halter has an affinity for famous last words. So when he leaves home to an Alabama boarding school, it's as if he's following French writer Françoise Rabelais' last words of "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." Miles' "Great Perhaps" becomes the unknown world he's about to venture into.

At the school, he becomes friends with his roommate Chip (the Colonel), Takumi and a girl named Alaska Young. Alaska is undeniably beautiful, smart, witty and mysterious. Miles falls in love with her instantly. Alaska is also obsessed with the book The General in His Labyrinth, because the character's last words resonate with her: "How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?" This quote becomes a theme throughout the book and is discussed by characters frequently. As Alaska spends more time with Miles, she begins to points him toward the great perhaps.

Looking For Alaska won a 2006 Printz Award and was the first book by John Green. It is divided into two sections: before and after. The first part is an introduction to the characters, while the second part leads readers into an inescapable sense of foreboding. This book makes the reader wonder, what is the "Great Perhaps?"

Marielle Dent is a junior at Academy for Technology and the Classics. You can reach her at onyx-13@hotmail.com.