By John Green
Published: 2006
AR Level: 5.6
AR Points: 10.0
Word Count: 61,412
I suggest: 7th grade +
Quirky is the only word to describe Green’s An Abundance of Katherines. From the main character-narrator, to the story itself, it’s a quirky good read with moments of emotional depth and poignancy. I love the nerdy male main character, Colin, and the friendship he has with Hassan. Green does a wonderful job dealing with different backgrounds and religions between the friends, while steering clear of stereotypes. The layout is another great aspect of this novel that adds to the quirk factor. With fun footnotes and factoids, Green makes An Abundance of Katherines stand out in an abundance of typical young adult fiction.
When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy–loving best friend riding shotgun—but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.
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