Life As We Knew It

Life as we Know centers around the life of a family after a catastrophe ,as told by the 16 year old narrator Miranda, in diary format. After a worldwide catasptrophe, Miranda and her family must learn to survive in a drastically changed world. Gas prices rise, food is scare, family and friends are dead.With everything changing around them Miranda and her family struggle to stay together.

The main protagonist matures nicely in the book from a slightly pampered sixteen year old to more mature and decisive character.Miranda intially pines for the creature comforts lost but eventually realizes that they are all in a struggle for survival. Life as We Knew It Is not just a look at how things change after catatsrophe but, also a look at how people change.Life As We Knew It is the first book in the last survivor's series.
This book is a perfect book for readers that like post-apocalyptical reads with great writing, the main character will also be very relateable to many readers.

Age group: 13 and up
Content: a refernce to somone letting her teenage daughter go off with a grown man, a reference to a charcter committing suicide, references to several people dying in disasters, some characters consume wine at a dinner, also a reference to teenage pregnancy.

Reader reviewed by GBC

Life As We Knew It is a great book for teens who are looking for a book with a post-apocalyptic feel, but without a terrorist attack or world war.  There are plenty of deaths, and people do act a bit crazy, but this book provides a great view of what life could be like if life as we knew it changed drastically.  After the moon gets knocked out of orbit, and disaster ensues, Miranda steps up and finds a way to survive and help her family, both growing up and learning a lot about herself.  The book prompts all kinds of discussion, especially begging the question: "What would you do?".  This is a fantastic end-of-the-world type story for middle school and up!

Reader reviewed by Books N' Cooks

Life As We Knew It was the latest book for our little book club. A young adult book, once I started reading it, I couldnt put it down.

This book was about the life of a 16-year old girl and her family living in Pennsylvania after a meteor hits the moon and knocks it out of orbit. This spurs off a series of natural disasters tsunamis, storms, droughts, blizzards, effecting the lives of everyone. Ordinary life shifts rapidly to a life with spotty or no electricity, little to no news about the present circumstances or predictions for the future, and limited food supplies (whatever you have stocked up on). The family struggles to cope with these challenges and prepare for an uncertain future, sacrificing so much for each other.

This book really makes you realize just how quickly things can change, and how we should remind ourselves how lucky we are. There are so many things most people today take for granted a never-ending supply of food and gas; electricity; heat and air conditioning; telephones; etc. Life As We Knew It takes away all of these things, and reminds us of what is important family.

I found Life As We Knew It to be a quick read but highly recommended.

Reader reviewed by Jenna

Like As We Knew It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time!!
The disasters in the book are great and creative, I  mean a meteor hitting the moon dead center and knocking it out of orbit creating tidal waves covering most of the continent, volcanoes exploding so often because of the moons gravity pull that the ash is starting to cover the sun, they're getting blizzards in August, Imagine that for a summer!!

Reader reviewed by Amy Ward

What an amazing book!  And heart-pounding!  And sad!  And terrifying!  And disturbing!  I could go on and on but I think you get the picture!  Life as we Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer tells the horrifying story of Miranda and her family after a meteor knocks the moon closer to earth.  The horror is unimaginable.  It was very difficult to read this book.  At times I would be crying and other times I would be so hopeful.  It was a rollercoaster of emotions.  I had to force myself to put the book down even though I didn't want to.  I actually had a few bad dreams because of this book.  But don't let that put you off.  It was an amazing story.  Miranda and her family go through ordeals that I wouldn't wish on anyone!   The best thing about the book is how they are able to hope and try to live life in the midst of chaos!  The ending had me on the edge of my seat!  Find out what happens for yourself!

Reader reviewed by BooksObsession

This apocalyptic novel was fantastic and thought-provoking! Based on the "end-of-the-world" concept, this book gave a whole new meaning to family and survival. I liked how it was written in the form of diary entries. It kept my attention, and made me eager to read the sequel. I really enjoyed this book, and definitely recommend it to other readers.

Reader reviewed by JulieA.

Life as we knew it is a great book about life on earth suddenly and dramatically changing told through the eyes of a teenager.  A comet that is supposed to creat an amazing light show in the night sky shockingly collides with the earth's moon pushing it dangerously close to the earth.  Gravity is disturbed, so tides change.  Immediately Cape Cod and Manhattan are submerged.  How would you respond to such a catastrophe.  This book is exciting, suspenseful, scary and even a little romantic.  A must read!

Reader reviewed by Samantha

This was a book on my Reading Bowl list. I thought it was going to be sad by what some of the other girls said, but it really wasn't.

If I was asked what my favorite part of this book was, it would have to be the swimming and the ice skating part. I always thought Miranda was more fun there.

It scared me a little though, her bro's names was my bro's name, her BF's name was MY name, it got creppy after a while.

Reader reviewed by mearley

Miranda and her family are trying to survive after a giant asteroid affects the moon's gravitational pull. Through Miranda's diary, we see how her family struggles from day to day, making sure there's enough food, medicine, fuel, etc. just to live. It really does make you think about what you would do--what you'd be willing to do--to make sure you and your family survived even when so many other people were dying.

I had this book for a long time before I read it. I'm guilty of judging a book by it's cover. The cover shown here looks fine, but the version I have (Scholastic school edition) shows a pink dresser with various hair accessories and art supplies and figure skating pictures. The cover seems to appeal to "tweenage" girly-girls, and I thought I wouldn't be interested. It's too bad the cover is so misleading, because it really is a challenging story about moving beyond childish, selfish needs and instead making serious, grown-up decisions.

Reprinted here with the author's permission.

Reader reviewed by Dominique

I loved this book. I had to keep reading the next page to see what they'd do or how they'd survive.

The only part I didn't like is that it's written as a diary entry. It ruined it for me. When it seemed like she was about to die, I'd remember "Hang on, she has to be alive to write a diary entry".