John Green's Paper Towns

 Paper Towns is a book about finding yourself. For protagonist Quentin Jacobsen, the search is disguised by a search for a lost friend. Margo (Roth Spiegelman) has disappeared after briefly rekindling their childhood friendship. She left Quentin some clues that he assumes she wants him to follow to find her. In his journey he learns a lot about Margo, but also much more about himself.

This book opens with a great hook: Q's memory of finding the dead man in the park with Margo and her reaction to it. It is eery, intriguing, and sets the reader up to expect a lot of excitement. Unlike other types of stories that need a couple of chapters to build up to "the good stuff," I'm sure that adolescent readers will be interested in Paper Towns right from the beginning. Green has written the rest of the book in a way that keeps their interest - Will Q really find Margo dead somewhere? Why did she leave? Where will the next clue lead? Can they really make it in time to catch her before she leaves Agloe? - until the end. This is a very big selling point for teachers who need to convince their students to read!

The book is also filled with a bunch of helpful hints for teens (and adults!), cleverly hidden as plot. When Q feels frustrated at one of his friends, Radar says to him "You know your problem Quentin? You keep expecting people not to be themselves. I mean, I could hate you for being massively unpunctual and for never being interested in anything other than Margo Roth Spiegelman, and for, like, never asking me how it's going with my girlfriend - but I don't give a shit man, because you're you" (194). I think adolescents will really appreciate the authenticity of the language Green uses for his teen characters and they will then be easier to relate to. When you relate to characters, you learn from them. Characters in "classic" novels - even those that use slang or the standard vernacular of their time - do not speak the way teens do today. While I feel it's good for teens to hear other ways of writing and speaking, there is something really valuable about speaking to adolescent readers in their own language. And in their language, each character in Paper Towns has at least one moment of true wisdom. This validates the teen experience and can make young readers feel like they really do matter.

I thought the paper town and paper people metaphor was really nice - something teens should think about. Considering a very popular young girl who cultivated her "paperness" and then decided to leave suddenly to transform herself because she didn't want to be an idea that everybody likes anymore, because she "could never be the idea to [herself]" could have a great impact on a young mind (294). As Quentin and Margo do, they will start to see the things about their lives that have actual substance and meaning. Then they can begin to create their own direction for life.

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