The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, ISBN 0-525-47881-7, Dutton Books 2012

Plot Summary:

Hazel Grace Lancaster is a 16 year old living with cancer. She has to take an oxygen tank with her everywhere and no longer attends regular school. Her parents are are the only people she spends any real time with outside of the weekly support group meeting she attends for kids dealing with cancer. At one of these meetings, Hazel meets a boy named  Augustus Waters who had cancer in the past but is only at the meeting to support his friend Isaac. Hazel and Gus become fast friends after the support group meeting. The two exchange their favorite books and past times and it doesn’t take long for them to fall in love. Gus uses his wish from the Genie foundation to take Hazel to Amsterdam to meet her favorite author. That trip cements their relationship and the pair are soon faced with events and decisions neither of them could see coming.

Critical Evaluation:

What I love the most about this book is its honest portrayal of how kids cope with cancer. Hazel and Gus and Isaac make jokes about the disease and their doctors because they’ve found that it’s a good coping mechanism. Green grants the characters the freedom to acknowledge their disease without allowing themselves to be defined by it. They still talk about the opposite sex and video games and their favorite bands just like any healthy teenager would. One particularly striking character is Van Houten, the author Hazel loves so much. Green shows Hazel that your heroes aren’t always what you expect them to be. There was a brief moment toward the end of the book where it looked like Hazel had shamed Van Houten into cleaning himself up, but he took a swig from his bottle and I loved that Green didn’t allow the character to be completely changed by two teenagers. That would have seemed too tidy and convenient. Only one facet of the book didn’t ring true: Hazel and Gus’ conversations. These two teenagers spoke to each other and their families as though they were much older. I understand that having a potentially terminal disease might cause a teenager to be wise beyond his/her years, but Hazel and Gus speak in an elevated, poetic verse that almost nobody can relate to. Otherwise, I loved this book and cried my way through the last half of it. Green certainly knows how to write a romance.

Reader’s Annotation:

Girl meets boy. Girl has cancer. Boy also has cancer. Can their love survive their disease?

Information about the Author:

From the author’s website:

John Green is the New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and The Fault in Our Stars. He is also the coauthor, with David Levithan, of Will Grayson, Will Grayson. He was 2006 recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award, a 2009 Edgar Award winner, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Green’s books have been published in more than a dozen languages.

In 2007, Green and his brother Hank ceased textual communication and began to talk primarily through videoblogs posted to YouTube. The videos spawned a community of people called nerdfighters who fight for intellectualism and to decrease the overall worldwide level of suck. (Decreasing suck takes many forms: Nerdfighters have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight poverty in the developing world; they also planted thousands of trees around the world in May of 2010 to celebrate Hank’s 30th birthday.) Although they have long since resumed textual communication, John and Hank continue to upload two videos a week to their YouTube channel, vlogbrothers. Their videos have been viewed more than 500 million times, and their channel is one of the most popular in the history of online video. He is also an active Twitter user with more than 3.8 million followers.

Green’s book reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review and Booklist, a wonderful book review journal where he worked as a publishing assistant and production editor while writing Looking for Alaska. Green grew up in Orlando, Florida before attending Indian Springs School and then Kenyon College.

Genre:

Romance, Fiction, Medical Fiction

Curriculum Ties:

Dealing with disease, dealing with a friend’s death, teenage relationships

Challenge Issue:

This book could be challenged because it deals with underage drinking as well as teenage sex.

Creating a Defense:

• Make sure you have thorough knowledge of the library’s selection policy as well as a copy on hand. Your insight as well as pointing out specific portions of the policy will be helpful in discussion with the patron.
• Always have the library Bill of Rights close to show the patron your library’s commitment to providing all kinds of information.
• Have some reveiws on hand, both good and bad, from respected sources like YALSA or Amazon so both you and the patron can gain an understanding of both sides of the issue.
• Make sure you’re familiar with the books that might be challenged. Be prepared to discuss the book’s intended audience, its educational significance, purpose, and also some alternative titles to read.
• Don’t get defensive. The librarian can’t take the challenge personally and either party getting upset will cause the discussion to devolve into a fight.
• LISTEN. Even if you don’t agree with the patron, their views are as valid as yours and should be respected.

Reading Level:

Grades 9-12

Booktalking Ideas:

How would you cope if a friend had cancer? What would you do with just one wish?

Why is the material included?:

This book and its film version are extremely popular right now. I think it would be on most lists of must reads for teenagers.

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