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Life as We Knew It

When Miranda begins writing in her new diary, there are few surprises. She is an average teenage girl, living in an average Pennsylvania town, prone to adolescent self-absorption. But when an asteroid hits the moon, a nearly apocalyptic weather change occurs and her shift in attention is sudden and palpable. No one can predict the long-term outcome of the catastrophe. Mass hysteria is followed by the slowly dawning realization that things may not get better. Months go by and Miranda’s diary reveals the growing anxiety and fear within her family. There is scarcely power, the water supply is threatened, and meals soon need to be rationed to one or two cans of food a day. Her family survives illnesses and injuries, and the death of close friends, all the while cut off from knowledge of what is happening beyond their town. The sense of doom in this fast-paced, speculative novel is overwhelming, but so, too, is the humanity of its characters and the will to survive. ©2006 Cooperative Children's Book Center

CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 13 and older
Age Range: Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13) Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format: Novel
Subjects: Disasters Fear Speculative Fiction Survival

Publisher: Harcourt
Publish Year: 2006
Pages: 337
ISBN: 9780152058265

CCBC Location: Fiction, Pfeffer

Life as We Knew It