An Abundance of Katherines

                                                         Title: An Abundance of Katherines

Author: John Green

Year of Publication: 2006

Genre: Young-Adult Fiction

            An Abundance of Katherines is a 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor Book, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and a Book of the Year by three professional book reviews. “The Michael L. Printz Award annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit, each year. In addition, the Printz Committee names up to four honor books, which also represent the best writing in young adult literature.” (YALSA)

          An Abundance of Katherines is a young adult fiction novel, written in the third-person, which follows a depressed prodigy child named Colin Singleton. Colin is a lonely child who loves to anagram everything and chooses to study hours upon hours a day to learn all that he can. His father thought this would make him a genius but Colin did not become a genius, he stayed a prodigy child.

The story starts the day after high school graduation when he recently is dumped by Katherine 19. His best friend Hassan Harbish (who is Muslim and no he is not a terrorist, which he makes clear multiple times throughout the story) and Colin (part Jewish) decide they need to get away. They go on a road trip and end up in Gutshot, Tennessee. They stop here to see the supposed burial ground of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was shot in the gut and was later turned famous by being the one to start WWI. (“While in power, [Archduke Franz Ferdinand] attempted to restore Austro-Russian relations while maintaining an alliance with Germany. In 1914, a Serb nationalist assassinated him. One month later, Austria declared war on Serbia and World War I began.”(Bio)) Here they meet Lindsey Lee Wells who ironically is dating another guy named Colin (here on after will be called “TOC,” aka The Other Colin). Upon meeting Lindsey’s mother, Hollis, Colin is instantly recognized from when he was on a game show as a child called “KranialKidz.” She then proceeds to offer Colin and Hassan a job, interviewing present and past employees from her family factory, which makes tampon strings. Hollis even invited the boys to stay with her and Lindsey while they are in town. Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey become great friends during their time together. The trio spends every day together either working or hanging out with Lindsey’s friends. Hassan even develops a relationship with a girl named Katrina. However, the relationship with Katrina does not last long. Hassan and Colin find Katrina having sex with TOC at the cemetery. Colin decides to tell Lindsey even though TOC warns him against it, which ends TOC and Lindsey’s relationship and earns Colin and Hassan a butt kicking from TOC. Later Lindsey and Colin start dating breaking his Katherine’s streak and mending his heart. It is during his time here in Gutshot that Colin reflects back to his past relationships with the 19 Katherine’s and decides to create a Theorem that can predict who will break up with whom. He thinks he has succeeded creating his Theorem and works it out on all his past relationships and sees that all the Katherine’s except one were destined to end it with him. He completely forgot that he actually broke up with Katherine 3 and not the other way around. So thinking his Theorem works, he uses it to see how long his relationship with Lindsey will last. However, he comes to realize nobody can predict the future.

The main theme and issue of this story is love. Colin tries to find his one true love that will not leave him and will love him. He started dating at a young age and her name happened to be Katherine, it only lasted for a couple of minutes but he thought he loved her. After dating a couple of times and their name coincidentally being Katherine, he then intentionally only goes out with girls named Katherine, until the end. He becomes too attached too fast to these Katherine’s; his emotions are too high where they are concerned. The Katherine’s eventually pull away from him and dump him repeatedly.  He thought he had found that significant other with Katherine 19, who also happens to be Katherine 1, but it was not to be. He came full circle before he realized his true love would not be a girl named Katherine. Maybe it will be a girl named Lindsey instead. Time will only tell.

Another theme and issue of this story is friendship. Colin could not make any friends when he was younger. He was thought of as weird nerd and uncool, because he knew practically everything. Nobody likes a know it all and he was not afraid to show it. He took being a child prodigy as something to tell everyone. It was not until Hassan moved to his school that he finally found a friend.  Hassan found Colin funny that first day at school and decided to befriend him. They continued to be friends throughout their childhood and into their adulthood. Hassan understands Colin and does not begrudge him for how he is. Friendships make life sweeter and more enjoyable.

This book portrays and defines adolescence as the typical teenager everyone knows and loves: hormonal, dramatic, self-absorbed, and classified into social groups.  The protagonist, adolescent Colin, looks for love, and expresses his feelings and desire towards his significant other. Colin feels like his whole world is ending and that he cannot continue living when he is dumped. He is so self-absorbed about his own feelings and trying to find out how to live without his current Katherine that he does not acknowledge how his friend Hassan is doing or what he is up to. Colin seems unfriendly and a little put out when he finds out Hassan decides to date someone. It takes him being confronted by Hassan to realizes how self-absorbed he has been that makes confront himself and become a better friend. Another portrayal of adolescence is how everyone is put into social groups in high school either by themselves or by someone else depending on the how they act or know. There are many social groups in high school. Colin is considered a nerd and is put in the nerd group by his peers. This novel can relate to any adolescent.

By reading this book, a reader may view this as controversial by the sexual content; there is a sex scene between Katrina and TOC. On the other hand, maybe it is the language, they use “fug” a lot, which represents the f word. Upon research, this book was “suspended from the Highland Park, Tex., Independent School District’s approved book list (2014) by the school superintendent. The decision sparked a backlash and drew national attention. The superintendent then reinstated the book. In February 2015, the school district trustees approved policy changes on how the district selects books and handles parents’ objections.” (ILA) It was in fact banned for its “sexual situations,” according to The Daily Dot, in Texas by parents who did not think it appropriate for their children to read in class. John Green is no stranger for his books being banned.  A few of his YA novels have been challenged and banned in schools for multiple reasons: An Abundance of Katherines for sexual content, Paper Town for sexual content and language, Looking for Alaska for being too racy and The Fault in our Stars for teens dying, language and sexual content.

John Green “was born on August 24, 1977 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a YouTube video-blogger, or “vlogger”, with his brother, Hank Green. Their YouTube channel, Vlogbrothers, has over 2,500,000 subscribers as of May 2015. Perhaps more notably, John is also an author…Alongside his brother, Hank Green, John started an annual YouTube conference called “Vidcon” in 2010.” (IMDB) John Green’s novel An Abundance of Katherienes is a great book that relates to all adolescents and should be allowed to be read in all middle level and secondary level schools.

Works Cited

“An Abundance of Katherines.” John Green RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

“Biography.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

“Books Challenged or Banned in 2014-2015, by Robert P. Doyle.” Illinois Library Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

“Dallas School District Bans John Green, 6 Other Authors.” The Daily Dot. N.p., 23 Sept. 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

“Franz Ferdinand.” Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

Green, John. An Abundance of Katherines. New York, NY: Dutton, 2006. Print.

“The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.” Young          Adult Library Services Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.