Talk:Looking for Alaska

message: # The current text is not so hotsy, totsy.  It should not be improved.
# This book won the ALA's Printz award.  That should be here.  A link should be made to the ALA's Printz award page.
# 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.
# This author has his own web site and MySpace, etc.  Those links should be here or somewhere
# 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.
# The author is a former employee of the ALA.  That should be here.
# 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)
replies: text: I've reedited the text somewhat.  I'd be interested to know what you think. Czolgolz 13:40, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: 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)

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

text: 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)

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

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title: PABBIS

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

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Proposed Revisions to Article 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Proposed Changes to Article 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Proposed Changes