Sunday, November 05, 2006

Life As We Knew It


Imagine waking up one day to find that everything had changed practically over night. All over the world massive destruction due to one natural disaster after another. And what if there was no way to turn back the clock. To wake up knowing that each day will be worse than the one before. No electricity. No phone service. No gas or oil. Limited food supplies. What is there left to hope for? How would you live your last days?

Meet Miranda your personal guide through this terrifying adventure.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. 2006. Life As We Knew It.

When we first meet Miranda she is a happy, practically care-free young girl with so much to look forward to. It's May of her sophomore year. She's sixteen and dealing with ordinary problems. Friends. Boys. Schoolwork. But less than one week after our narrative opens, Miranda's world is about to change and she doesn't even know it. When they first hear that astronomers are predicting that a meteor will hit the moon, it's a time of light-hearted celebration. Teachers assign students moon-based assignments. After all, wasn't meteors hitting the moon how the moon got all those craters to begin with? What's the big deal? But what astronomers failed to predict--or failed to announce--is that this would be the largest meteor to ever hit the moon. Still families make plans to sit out on the lawn, some even baking cookies or popping popcorn to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime event, to watch history in the making. Miranda and her family witness the meteor hitting, but what no one could have predicted is that they are witnessing the destruction of life as we know it. The meteor hits the moon setting it not only off-tilt but bringing it dangerously close to Earth. Scary to witness, but Miranda has no idea what it has set into motion. Tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, wild fires. And that is just the beginning.

Journey with Miranda through these terrifying months (May-March) as everyone struggles to survive.

Susan Beth Pfeffer has created a very exciting novel sure to leave an impact on her readers. Writing since 1970, she has written over sixty books for children and young adults.

Randomhouse's Author spotlight

3 comments:

Josette said...

I like the sound of this book. Gonna put it on my Book-to-buy/borrow list! You wrote a great description of it.

Dewey said...

I really loved this one, too.

Sponge for Knowledge said...

I've been thinking apocalyptic thoughts, and how it would be to survive on earth amidst natural disaster chaos, so I've been meaning to pick up this book lately.

I'm glad to get a review of it here because I wasn't sure exactly what it would focus on. But this was great and I've got some more impetus now to give it a go. Thanks!