20 Years of Banning LOOKING FOR ALASKA
In March 2005, John Green published his first novel, Looking for Alaska. 20 years later, he is on a book tour and making media appearances for his newest book, Everything is Tuberculosis. In comparison, Looking for Alaska was a much quieter release, despite receiving positive reviews. John Green was not yet the household name he would become following The Fault In Our Stars.
In the years that followed, though, Looking for Alaska continued to find new readers. It won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association. It began to be taught in some high schools across the United States. Eventually, in 2019, it was even adapted into a Hulu TV show.
Looking for Alaska is a book about grief and finding meaning. It’s about the messy experience of coming of age. It’s about imagining people complexly. It’s a novel concerned with philosophy, and John Green has said that if he was teaching it in a class, the questions he would have students discuss are: “What is the point of death? and What is the point of literature? and in an essentially and irreparably broken world, is there cause for hope?”
It’s also a book he’s discussed as deeply tied to his Christianity. After graduating with a double major in English and religious studies, he spent six months as a student chaplain in a children’s hospital, originally intending to become an Episcopal priest. His faith is intertwined with his storytelling, and in the FAQ included in the 10th-anniversary edition, he says,
“That is why it has always seemed off to me that all the people who want to ban Looking for Alaska from schools claim it is offensive to Christian values, when the core Christian values—radical hope, universal forgiveness—are the core values of the book’s final chapter.”
Let’s talk about those bans. While Looking for Alaska was growing in popularity, it also had another claim to fame, one unrelated to its themes or literary merit. Ten years after publication, in 2015, it became the most banned book in the United States, according to the American Library Association.
One interesting aspect of the bans on John Green’s books is that he is someone who has consistently made videos on YouTube for the past 18 years. Not only is his book one of the most frequently banned titles of the past 20 years, but he’s also spoken about the challenges throughout that time, and we can see how his approach has changed over the years.
