Paper towns

Paper Towns

(John Green)

Today we will talk about a book named Paper Towns. First, we will do a introduction, and then, we will do a book summary.

Introduction:

-      John Michael Green was born on August 24, 1977 in Indianapolis. John Green is a recent popular name in the American young adult fiction. He is also an avid video blogger who has published numerous educational videos online. The Fault in Our Stars is considered to be his outstanding by far along with other notables.

-      Paper Towns was published on October 16, 2008 by Dutton Books. John Green gained inspiration for this book, through his experience and knowledge of "paper towns", during a road trip through South Dakota. It debuted at number five on the New York Times bestseller list for children's books. A film adaptation was released on August 24, 2015.

Plot Summary

-      Paper Towns is the story of a boy named Quentin Jacobsen and the adventure he is drawn into by his childhood friend and secret love Margo. As children, Quentin and Margo discovered a dead man's body; an event that binds them in ways they don’t realize. However, as they grow up, they grow apart.

-      Quentin's good friends, Radar and Ben Starling are nerds. In contrast, Margo is the most popular girl in school who has an incredible reputation. The plot takes off in Chapter 3 when Margo gets into Quentin's bedroom and asks him to help her execute an plan, which largely involves taking revenge on her ex-boyfriend. Throughout the night, Quentin gets very happy and his love for Margo is reenergized.

-      In the second part of the book, Margo completely disappears and Quentin wonders if he will see her again. However, Margo has left him a series of clues as to her whereabouts, and that’s what the second part is, piecing together Margo's clues. Quentin pursues Margo with the help of his friends, but all the while, high school comes to an end. Quentin follows a string of false leads, which makes him increasingly reflective and leads him to gradually accept that he has made Margo into a magical non-person, a "paper girl", and that he loves someone who may not exist. He eventually decides that the only way to find Margo is to understand who she is. Throughout the second part, Margo use the sentence “paper towns” in her clues, and Quentin figures out that a paper town is a false city on a map that cartographers once used to detect copycats. She had gone to a paper town called Algoe, in New York.

-      The third part begins with the night of graduation when Quentin grabs his friends to leave on an intense, twenty-one hour road trip from Orlando to upstate Agloe. Quentin, Radar, Ben, and Ben's new girlfriend Lacey, must catch Margo the day before she leaves Agloe forever. When they reach Agloe, they find Margo in an old barn, writing. After fighting furiously about Margo's apparent selfishness for leaving, Ben, Radar, and Lacey storm out. Quentin and Margo realized that they love each other. However, they both realize with regret that their love was based in falsehood, in being a "paper boy" and a "paper girl." Margo left in order to release everyone from the effects of her false, public personality. They admit their romantic affections for one another but realize that her relation will never work out, so they give up.

Note:

We have a small point to make about the concept "Paper Towns":

The concept of "paper towns" is mentioned several times. John Green has seen and heard of many "paper towns". However, his first experience with a "paper town" happened during his junior year of college, while on a road trip.

Conclusion:

If our presentation you raised your curiosity, we advise you to read this book and we promise that you will not regret!

Work done by:

 -Daniela Silva nº12

 -Ana Paula nº5

11ºA