Who is John Green?

Over a year ago, my granddaughter in California asked me if I knew anything about John Green. She asked if I had ever read his books. My response was that I had never heard of him. She said she really liked him and that he did things on YouTube.  "Are you sure you have never seen him on a video?" I shook my head and thought, well, this is another generation gap. For Christmas she wanted a gift card to Barnes and Noble so she could buy some of his books.

Around February of this year, my Colorado granddaughter told me she was reading a book by John Green. Reading is not a favorite of this granddaughter so I was surprised to hear her say she was reading a book. A few days later I happened to see a large display of a blue covered book with the title of The Fault in Our Stars  by John Green at a book store. I almost purchased the book but decided it was probably for young adults. Yesterday, at a luncheon, a friend of mine, my age, mentioned she is reading a book by John Green called The Fault in Our Stars. She recommended it and I now have it on my Kindle.  Who is this John Green that keeps popping up in my life? I have since found out that the book has been on the New York Best Seller list for 73 weeks and today the movie of  The Fault in Our Stars comes out.


In March when my granddaughter and I went to lunch she told me about a conference in California coming up in June. She said, "I really would like to attend, but it is expensive." She told me it was called VidCon and it had something to do with You Tube videos. I looked it up and  found out it is an annual conference created in 2010 by John Green and his brother, Hank. There are performances, concerts and parties at the conference. VidCon is a gathering of persons who make or love online videos and the conference sounds exciting and fun.

On CBS Sunday Morning show, there was a segment of John Green and his brother, Hank. They have had a daily v-blog for over a year. He said he was considered a nerd, was bullied and worked in a hospital with children with life threatening illnesses. While working at the hospital he met a young woman with thyroid cancer and she inspired him to write The Fault in Our Stars. On the show, some of his fans talked about the wonderful story that is not about cancer but a beautiful love story. One fan had a tattoo on his arm: Nerd Fighter. It was mentioned that many do not know who John Green is, (like me) but ask teen-agers and they know all about him.



Last night I finished reading The Fault in the Stars and found it to be a beautiful love story about two teen agers suffering from cancer. The story made me realize how painful and lost patients can feel knowing that death can happen at any time. It must be a terrible emotion to carry around. The agony of the patient and the parents is a daily thing. Hazel, the main character in the book, refers herself as a grenade; not knowing when it will explode. I cried a lot as I read the story and did not like the obvious outcome, yet I did enjoy the story. A movie of the story is in theaters, but I have not decided if I will go see the movie because I do not care for emotional and sad movies and this seems like an extremely emotional and sad movie!

In researching John Green I found out that he writes young adult fiction. He is a You Tube Video Blogger with his brother Hank Green. They have the Vlog Brothers Channel with over 2.1 million followers and has a Nerd fighter gang sign of arms crossed over chest and with fingers outstretched leaving a space between ring finger and middle finger. The yearly conference for You Tubers they started a few years ago now has over 18,000 followers attending.

I probably would never have known about John Green if it had not been for my granddaughters but now that I do know about him, I will read some of his other books and if his name pops up in a conversation, I will be able to add to the conversation! I watched some of the video blogs and this is where age comes in...I found the brothers talk too fast, I didn't understand what they were saying, and it is not something I would watch, yet, teenagers probably get a big kick out of the fast-talking-ridiculous-ideas-spouting-out-of the mouth of John Green and his brother, Hank.

I feel like an expert on John Green. I wish I had paid more attention when his name was first mentioned to me so long ago by my California granddaughter. When I see her again, I will at least be able to know who she is talking about and maybe have a discussion with her about John Green!