An Abundance of Katherines

John Green is kind of a big deal in the world of teen lit. In his Printz Honor-winning novel An Abundance of Katherines we are introduced to Colin Singleton, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy, who has just been dumped for the 19th time by a girl named Katherine. To help him get over this latest dating disaster, Colin's friend Hassan takes him on a road trip. The two end up in the tiny town of Gutshot, Tennessee where they meet and become friends with Lindsey Lee Wells, a girl who tries her hardest to become what other people expect in order to remain popular. Colin and Hassan stay with Lindsey and her mother for the summer, taking jobs collecting local oral history samples. During this time, Colin tries to come up with a mathematical formula to explain his terrible luck with girls and predict the outcome of any other future relationship, desperately hoping that this formula will finally allow him to truly matter to the world.

Yes, the premise of this story is a little wacky. But if you can get past the unlikelihood of a boy having dated so many girls all with the same name, the novel is absolutely amazing. Laugh-aloud hilarious at parts, but full of coming-of-age sincerity at others. This is really a story about love, heartbreak and how we all strive to make a difference and "matter" to the rest of the world.

I actually listened to this as an audiobook. Jeff Woodman narrates the story, and he does a great job to providing each of the main characters with different voices and narrating with honest enthusiasm. The final chapters of this book are particularly philosophical, however, and I do kind of wish that I had been able to read the end of the book to better absorb some of this philosophy instead of listening to it straight though. But overall, a highly enjoyable book to hear aloud.

Overall Grade: A+