50 Fun Facts About Looking for Alaska

Which ironic nickname does roommate Chip Martin give skinny Miles Halter in Looking for Alaska?

Pudge sticks for the whole novel, even though Miles is rail thin. Chip, who hands out everyone's nicknames, calls himself the Colonel.

Which bird stalking the Culver Creek campus bites Miles on the backside in Looking for Alaska?

A swan guards the grounds like a watchdog for the dean, and it nips Miles as he flees on Barn Night. John Green based it on a real bird at his old school.

In Looking for Alaska, which performer do the friends hire to pose as a Speaker Day professor?

A male stripper named Maxx plays a visiting expert on teenage sexuality, then undresses mid-speech. The prank honours Alaska, and even the dean admits it was clever.

In Looking for Alaska, what is new boy Miles wrapped in before being thrown into the school lake?

Duct tape binds him like a mummy, so he has to wriggle ashore. His attackers blame his roommate's circle for getting a friend expelled.

What does Miles leave home to seek in Looking for Alaska, borrowing a French writer's reputed dying phrase?

The Great Perhaps is what he hopes boarding school will offer after a friendless spell at home. Only two acquaintances turn up to his leaving party.

Which object was added beneath the smoke on Looking for Alaska's first cover to reassure bookshops?

A candle was added because some book chains refused to display a cover that seemed to show cigarette smoke. Later paperbacks took it away again.

Which real event, said to split history in two, shaped Looking for Alaska's Before and After halves?

The 9/11 attacks gave John Green his structure: alone in his Chicago flat, he heard newscasters say life would now be seen as before or after that morning.

After years as a stalled film, which streaming service turned Looking for Alaska into a miniseries?

Hulu ordered eight episodes in 2018 from the creator of The O.C., who had first hoped to film the book more than a decade earlier.

Which later John Green novel, about two teens with cancer, made Looking for Alaska a bestseller?

The Fault in Our Stars made its author a household name in 2012, and his debut finally reached the New York Times list that year, seven years after release.

In Looking for Alaska, which party game leads to Miles and Alaska kissing on the night she dies?

Truth or Dare begins and ends with Alaska daring Miles to kiss her, while both are seeing other people. She breaks off, saying she is too tired.

In which US state is Culver Creek, the boarding school Miles Halter joins in Looking for Alaska?

Alabama is where the author himself boarded as a teenager, at a school near Birmingham that he reshaped into Culver Creek.

Which US state does Miles Halter leave behind to board at Culver Creek in Looking for Alaska?

Florida is also where John Green grew up, in Orlando, before he too went away to boarding school at fifteen.

What nickname do Culver Creek students give Mr. Starnes, the strict dean in Looking for Alaska?

The Eagle is feared for a withering stare known as the Look of Doom, and he is a regular target of the friends' pranks.

In Looking for Alaska, what name is given to the wealthy clique who dunk Miles in the lake?

Weekday Warriors earn the name by going home every weekend, which sets them apart from scholarship boarders like the Colonel.

Whose reputed last words, about a labyrinth, does Alaska quote to Miles in Looking for Alaska?

Simón Bolívar led much of South America to independence from Spain but died disillusioned in 1830. Alaska promises Miles a girlfriend if he can work out the riddle.

In Looking for Alaska, what killed Alaska's mother while her eight-year-old daughter looked on?

An aneurysm felled her as the frightened child froze instead of phoning for help. Alaska has blamed herself ever since.

Which flowers do police find in Alaska Young's car after the fatal crash in Looking for Alaska?

White tulips were meant for her mother's grave, her friends conclude. She had forgotten the anniversary of the death until a doodle by the phone reminded her.

What is a bufriedo, the cafeteria favourite of Culver Creek students in Looking for Alaska?

A deep-fried burrito is a staple of the Culver Creek diet, and it is over a plate of them that Miles first meets Takumi.

Which country does Lara Buterskaya, Miles's girlfriend in Looking for Alaska, originally come from?

Romania is where Lara lived before emigrating, and she still speaks with a mild accent. Alaska sets her up with Miles as her side of a bargain.

On Barn Night in Looking for Alaska, what do Miles and Takumi set off to lure the dean away?

Fireworks keep the dean chasing noises in the dark while the others carry out the real mischief. The same trick later covers Alaska's last drive off campus.

Which French writer's reputed last words send Miles Halter off to boarding school in Looking for Alaska?

François Rabelais was a physician and scholar of the 1500s, later best known for grotesque satires about giants.

In Looking for Alaska, what does Alaska decide the labyrinth is, rather than life or death?

Suffering is the maze everyone is trapped in, she tells Miles during their Thanksgiving alone on campus. His final essay argues that forgiveness is the way out.

In Looking for Alaska, whose late-night phone call wakes Alaska shortly before her fatal drive?

Jake is her boyfriend at university, the reason she keeps things with Miles platonic. His call seemed harmless, so the friends must look elsewhere for what upset her.

In Looking for Alaska, what kind of home does the Colonel share with his mother, Dolores?

A trailer is where Miles and Alaska eat Thanksgiving dinner, and the Colonel dreams of one day buying Dolores a grand house.

In Looking for Alaska, what colour does bully Kevin Richman's hair turn after the Barn Night prank?

Blue dye is slipped into his hair products by Lara, payback for the night he and his friends dumped Miles in the lake.

In Looking for Alaska, the hat Takumi wears on prank nights is named after which animal?

A fox hat was borrowed from real life: John Green had a Filipino school friend who wore one while pulling pranks.

Where did Alaska Young go with her mother on what she calls the best day of her life?

The zoo visit is the happiest memory she shares when the friends swap their best and worst moments over wine at their hideout.

Which subject does the elderly Dr. Hyde teach at Culver Creek in Looking for Alaska?

World Religions is where Dr. Hyde ejects Miles for daydreaming out of the window, then urges him to be present in every moment.

What injury ends Miles's first date with Lara, at a basketball game, in Looking for Alaska?

A concussion follows when a rival player, nicknamed the Beast, hurls the ball at Miles after the Colonel's heckling. The evening ends in hospital.

Instead of chapter numbers, Looking for Alaska counts which unit of time around the tragedy?

Days are the measure, running from 136 before to 136 after, so the whole story pivots on a single night.

Alaska's riddle comes from The General in His Labyrinth, whose author wrote which classic novel?

One Hundred Years of Solitude made Gabriel García Márquez famous long before his 1982 Nobel Prize. Miles later finds the riddle underlined in Alaska's copy of the later novel.

In Looking for Alaska, which drink does the Colonel mix with vodka to hide it from the dean?

Milk makes the mixture look innocent in the dormitory, a trick the Colonel shows Miles after their very first school day.

In Looking for Alaska, which list does Chip Martin recite from memory on first meeting Miles?

Countries roll off his tongue in alphabetical order, his answer to Miles's own party trick of memorising famous last words.

What do Miles and the Colonel steal from the dean's house while investigating Alaska Young's death?

A breathalyzer lets the Colonel drink until he matches her reading of 0.24, far above the legal limit, to learn what state she was in.

Which American prize for teen literature did Looking for Alaska win the year after it was published?

Printz Award judges pick the best teen book purely on literary merit, and the win sent sales soaring. John Green called the news his purest moment of joy.

On which YouTube channel, shared with Hank Green, did John Green defend Looking for Alaska?

Vlogbrothers carried his 2008 video rejecting the charge that the novel was pornography, after parents near Buffalo, New York, challenged it.

Which actress, later a lead in The Buccaneers, plays Alaska in the Looking for Alaska miniseries?

Kristine Froseth was announced in the role by John Green himself in 2018, and a Hollywood Reporter critic called her performance a marvel.

Which career did John Green abandon, after months in a children's hospital, to become a writer?

Episcopal priest was the plan until his spell as a student chaplain among gravely ill children changed his mind and turned him toward writing.

Alaska Young, who chose her own name at seven, says it comes from a word in which language?

Aleut is the source she cites, with a meaning about the sea breaking against the land. Her hippie parents had let her pick any name she liked.

In Looking for Alaska, which student panel punishes the friends after the dean catches them smoking?

The Jury is a group of elected students that handles minor rule-breaking. Alaska tries to take all the blame, and only she and the Colonel are punished.

Culver Creek in Looking for Alaska is modelled on which boarding school attended by its author?

Indian Springs took John Green as a boarder at fifteen. A classmate's death there fed into the novel, as did two of his own pranks.

Which Hollywood studio bought the film rights to Looking for Alaska but never made the movie?

Paramount Pictures shelved the project again and again over a decade, with filming once planned for Michigan. John Green said it always fell apart for one reason or another.

Which creator of The O.C. first tried to film Looking for Alaska and later ran its miniseries?

Josh Schwartz was lined up to write and direct a film version back in 2005. When it stalled, he waited thirteen years for the chance to make it for television.

In which US state was the Looking for Alaska miniseries shot, using a church retreat as the campus?

Louisiana stood in throughout: the campus is a conference centre in Loranger, and the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway turns up in one episode.

Which novelist do Alaska and Miles read during their Thanksgiving break in Looking for Alaska?

Kurt Vonnegut fills their lazy afternoons on the empty campus, along with wine on the soccer field and talk about the labyrinth.

In Looking for Alaska, who does the Colonel claim to be when he questions police about the crash?

Her brother is his cover story, and it works: an officer reveals that Alaska never swerved before the impact.

Whom does Miles get to phone the dean, posing as a professor, in Looking for Alaska?

His father, a Culver Creek old boy himself, plays the made-up Dr. William Morse on the phone so the school will book the speaker.

The author of Looking for Alaska first became fascinated by the last words of which US president?

John Adams started a childhood habit of collecting final sayings, which the writer later handed on to his narrator, Miles.

Which This Is Us actor plays the teacher Dr. Hyde in the miniseries of Looking for Alaska?

Ron Cephas Jones won two Emmys as William Hill in the family drama. He joined the cast alongside Veep's Timothy Simons, who plays the dean.

In Looking for Alaska, which subject does Alaska tutor Miles in before his big exam?

Pre-calculus study sessions bring the two closer: Alaska drives a carload of classmates to a fast-food restaurant to revise, with Lara perched on Miles's lap.