Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
SUMMARY: The prospect of an asteroid hitting the Moon is just a mildly interesting news item to Pennsylvania teenager Miranda, but her priorities undergo a radical change when that collision shifts the Moon into a closer orbit, causing violent earthquakes, massive tsunamis, millions of deaths, and an upsurge in volcanism. Thanks to frantic preparations by her quick-thinking mother, Miranda's family is in better shape than many as utilities and public services break down in stages, wild storms bring extremes of temperature, and outbreaks of disease turn the hospital into a dead zone. In Miranda's day-by-day journal entries, she focuses on the stresses of spending months huddled in increasingly confined quarters, watching supplies dwindle, and wondering whether there will be any future to make the effort worthwhile. The author provides a glimmer of hope at the end, but readers will still be left stunned and thoughtful. (adapted from School Library Journal)
OPINION: This book is not nearly as well-written as How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, but that doesn't stop it from being an intriguing conjecture about living under challenging circumstances. What struck me most was the family's trip to the supermarket after the collision, where they were stuffing carts with crazy amounts of canned goods, medicines, and pet food. They had the presence of mind to plan for a long period of suffering, but even that preparation wasn't quite enough. The day-to-day realities of this book are what make it worth reading, and you will become involved in Miranda's struggle for survival as life on earth becomes more and more endangered.
UPCOMING: Look for The Dead and the Gone, a companion book about the same events an how they impact life in New York City, in May 2008.
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