Book Review: "Life As We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer

This chilling novel is written in journal entries by Miranda. She is a sixteen year old normal teenager...in high school, on the swim team, has her own group of friends. One evening, everything changes. A meteor crashes into the moon, pushing it off of its axis. This causes many earth-changing events such as erupting volcanoes, tsunamis and earthquakes. Life changes dramatically for everyone. There are food and gas shortages and intense changes in the weather. Miranda documents each one of these events as they unfold. She goes through stages of grief....disbelief, anger, sadness, and finally, acceptance. She realizes how much she loves her family and how much they love her. They all find out how important each one of them is to the other during this crisis. It draws them closer.This is a frightening story in the sense that something like this could really happen. I enjoyed this book for the most part, although I thought it was a little longer than it needed to be. The author was very descriptive, and painted a picture of what the little Pennsylvania town would have looked like after the incident. I could relate to the characters and what they were feeling.
Three Stars

Harcourt Children's Books (October 1, 2006) Young Adult, 352 pages ISBN-10: 0152058265