Paper Towns by John Green

Released October 2008.

Green has created another winner for teens, and it just might be his best book yet!

Quentin is a high school senior who lives a quiet but not horrible life.  He has two best friends, Ben and Radar, two loving and still-married therapist parents, and a natural abhorrence of the prom.  His quiet life is changed when his life-long crush, Margo Roth Spiegelman, comes to his window wearing black face paint and inviting him on an all-night revenge spree.  It is the longest and most amazing night of Quentin’s life, but when he heads back to school to see Margo she has disappeared.  Now all he has are baffling clues that she left behind to help him find her.

The characters here are so amazing it is hard to put it into words.  Green has captured what it is to be a nerd or geek in school.  It isn’t lonely or harsh, just unique.  Quentin and his friends are intelligent, esoteric and hysterically funny guys.  They are well-developed characters that readers will love spending time with.  Other characters are equally interesting. Green has created a living, breathing high school here with a deft tone with dialogue and humor.

Green’s inclusion of Whitman, Moby Dick and other works of literature does more than invite teens to pick those books up.  He makes these tomes and others come to life, intertwine with the modern world and be relevant and meaningful.  A masterful accomplishment.

This book will fly off the shelves with the great dual cover, but make sure that it gets into the hands of well-adjusted, bright and unique kids.  They are the ones who will love the jokes, the characters, the literature, and the quest.

A Printz contender to be sure.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.