"Looking for Alaska" Is Not Pornography

[John Green]

Send your emails in support of "Looking for Alaska" and those who would teach it to [e-mail].

The Depew Board of Education will be meeting on February 5th at 7 PM at the Depew High School auditorium.

[April Carr]

I find the (lame, not the cool one's) adult's opinions extremely condescending. I don't really think that they should have a say in whether or not we read something if we think it's appropriate for us. I mean, my friend and I read Looking For Alaska when we were 12, and in seventh grade, and completely understood the concept. They should just shut their faces and let us decide what we read.

[Madeleine Moir]

Hey, I just got an email from my college that we are doing readings from banned books, and Looking for Alaska is on the list! (As well as Forever by Judy Blume) If no one else has signed up to read from it, I think I may have to.

[DeusExLibrus]

Book banners/burners piss me off. Its not so much the not wanting their kids to read something. As much as I think its wrong, its within their rights as parents to decide what their kids are exposed to, misguided as I wholeheartedly believe it may be. However that changes once you start thinking you have the right to dictate what other people's kids can be exposed to. My two all-time favorite novels, Siddartha by Hermann Hesse, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury are both on the banned books list. If the list was actually honored where I live, instead of booksellers selling metric tons of books off the list during banned books week, I never would have read either. We have something called freedom of expression in the US, its part of what makes this country great, and if you think you have the right to dictate such things to other people, I suggest you move to Afghanistan or the Islamic Republic of Iran and join the Basij.

[Karr Elias]

This is absurd ): LFA is a damn good book.
Hahah I too had myself rolling on the floor after reading the
" I am concussed" part.

[Mat Wojcik]

okay, it's pretty damn cool I'm comment number 100.

Anyway, I love how you not only stood up for your book in this video, but you stood up for teenagers. I hate that adults seem to forget how teenagers think, act, and.... well that could've been great parallelism, but I can't think of a third thing. think and act pretty much cover it. It's as if as they grow older they forget that children can be correct as well. It's like the put stuff on your head thing. Just because someone's older, doesn't mean they're correct. It just means they're older.
Thinking someone is more correct because they're older is like saying someone should be president because they're a woman, or they're black, or they're white, or they're a man.

I really hope your book gets to be taught to them!
I've never read it, but have added both your books to my list of books to buy/read.

[anobsessiontoofar]

I've started reading the article, and one thing that has annoyed me already is the quote “What’s next? Free condoms and unisex showers?”, i mean, unisex showers i dont think is right, but free condoms certainly help against teenage pregnancy, surely that is helpful! getting given a condom does not influence teenagers to have sex, just as the scene in 'Alaska' does not make them then want to go and perform such acts!

It's rediculous, as i said before, it seems that some people think that us teenagers have no mind or will of our own. Its easy for us to think about what we do, and say 'no' if we wish. reading a scene like the one in 'Alaska' just shows a few of the realities of teenage life. Children are being pressurised into growing up at a faster rate, and yet when they do, people talk about how we can't think for ourselves!

Sorry, it just annoys me so much when people typecast teenagers as an easily influenced body, we can think and act accordingly. if only some people would realise that.

[Kylie]

So, I wanted to see if I could find any information on how last night's meeting went. Anyone interested can read here:
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/269801.html

One quote that really bothered me was this one: The Rev. Nelson C. McCall, pastor of Hillview Baptist Church in Depew, said he had not read the book “but a doctor doesn’t have to have cancer to treat someone who has.”

Geez, can I say that's a bad analogy. While you don't need to have cancer to treat someone with it, I would CERTAINLY hope a doctor would perform the proper tests and examine the patient before they would diagnose someone with cancer.

I'm sorry for those in Depew who have to wait even longer for a decision. I hope it works out though, and the kids in the English classes are allowed to read the book. :)

[anobsessiontoofar]

I've got to say, I'd have loved studying Looking for Alaska in my English GCSE it would have been a lot more interesting than Lord of the Flies! I do like LOTF, but theres only so much you can write without saying 'evil within man'...

I got annoyed that parents whose children are not even in the class are attempting to get 'Alaska' banned, but also at how much they underestimate us teenagers, we dont just take things at face value, and I dont understand how people dont see this! Its not like every teenager who had to read Lord of the Flies then goes around acting 'Savage', we're not as stupid as some people think we are, and it aggrivates me so much!

[iam3v1lj3nn1]

Oh~!
P.S. Michael Cera should totally play Pudge in the movie version~! Just a suggestion~! GO BLEEKER~!

[iam3v1lj3nn1]

So.. I wanted to be outraged at the closed minds of this high school generation's parents.. but I, honestly, never read *Looking for Alaska* that is.. until I bought and read it YESTERDAY~! LOVE IT~! John, your writing style is exactly how you talk which is 1) made of awesome and 2) hilarious. But, I think if I were still in high school I would hate reading *Looking for Alaska* because people don't like being told what to do and because having to do lame projects based on pgs 1-25 then 26-50 takes away all the feeling and real-ness of reading a really good book. My sister suggested that it should be put on high school *Suggested Reading* lists which I don't think is a terrible idea. *Alaska* reminds me of *Catcher in the Rye* because as a school book I hated it, but as an independent reading book, I cherish it.