Number of challenges: 55

Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

Green’s novel features 16-year-old protagonist Miles on a quest for the “great perhaps” within a new boarding school environment (Green, 2005, pg. 10). The “Alaska” in question is one of Miles’ new companions;  along with his roommate “The Colonel” and another acquaintance, Takumi.

The novel is an exploration of relationships, experimentation, angst and forgiveness. According to NSW Health these are all standard traits of development within the 14-17 age group of “middle adolescence” founded in questions of “who am I, where do I belong?” (n.d., pg. 17). During this progression the teenager experiences extreme cognitive change in which self-identity, sexuality, behaviours, perceptions and ideals are questioned, and position within family and peer groups fluctuate. Although risk-taking actions are not unusual, the adolescent mind is more rational  and comprehensive of consequence than in earlier stages, and attentive to personal rights and freedoms.

Named the “most challenged book in 2015” (Coles, 2016, para 1) access to Looking for Alaska has been opposed based on ““offensive language,” “drugs/alcohol/smoking” and (being) “unsuited to age group” (Diaz, 2017, para 4). Green himself discusses accusations of ‘being pornographic” and likely to cause “immoral thoughts and actions in children” by parents within a school where the text was part of the curriculum. “These people (whose children were in younger classes) believed that no one should be allowed to read the book, even those people whose parents signed the permission slip (to read it) (Green, n.d). This appears to be a constant instinctive reaction, again by conservative members of the US community, with specific reference to Moms for Liberty continuing to obstruct the text in 2022, 17 years after it was published (Kubota, 2022).

Looking for Alaska is a well-written and sensitive exploration of finding self and one’s place within the adolescent world. It only uses profanity in character perspective and, in my opinion,  is summative of intimacy with no overt description.  Aimed at an age group of 14-17 years the suitability of this novel is orientated toward senior students, dependent on maturity and comprehension of context.