Book Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
First Published: 2005
Why It's Been Challenged:
Offensive language
Sexual content
Substance use (smoking, drinking)
Allegedly "unsuitable" for young readers
Before John Green was a household name with The Fault in Our Stars, he wrote Looking for Alaska, a raw and honest portrayal of adolescence at its most thrilling and devastating. The novel follows Miles "Pudge" Halter, a teenager obsessed with famous last words, who leaves his boring life behind for a boarding school called Culver Creek. There, he meets the mysterious, wild, and heartbreaking Alaska Young, a girl who changes everything for him.
Green doesn't pull punches about what it feels like to be young and lost: the awkwardness, the rebellion, the recklessness, the deep, aching need for connection. It's a coming-of-age story that refuses to tidy up the messy parts.
Looking for Alaska regularly appears on banned and challenged lists, and it most recently landed high on the American Library Association's Top 10 Most Challenged Books list.
Critics usually cite:
A sexually explicit scene
Depictions of smoking, drinking, and rule-breaking
"Inappropriate language" (translation: teenagers talking like actual teenagers)
The objections almost always hinge on the idea that young readers need to be protected from uncomfortable content. But here's the truth: banning this book doesn’t shield teens from reality, it just isolates them from the stories that might actually help them navigate it (I'm a former teen librarian...I like to think I know a little bit in this regard).
Looking for Alaska doesn’t glamorize self-destruction or risky behavior, it portrays them with brutal honesty and emotional weight. It opens up essential conversations about grief, mental health, love, and guilt.
It respects teenagers enough to trust that they can handle complexity. It offers a lifeline to readers who might be hurting and searching for understanding. It shows that messy, complicated stories deserve a place on our shelves because real life is messy and complicated, too.
In a world where isolation and mental health crises among teens are on the rise, the last thing we should do is pull powerful, empathetic stories out of reach.
Banning this book isn’t about protecting readers, it’s about avoiding discomfort. But growth and understanding come from leaning into discomfort, not running from it.
Looking for Alaska belongs on our shelves — and in the hands of anyone brave enough to ask the big questions.
