A major astronomical feat is about to take place: A meteor will hit the moon. At first, all 16-year-old Miranda thinks is that this event is giving her teachers an excuse to assign more homework. But when it turns out that the asteroid is much denser than predicted, the impact actually knocks the moon out of its orbit and pushes it closer to the Earth. As a result the Earth's climate changes drastically. Tsunamis destroy coastlines around the world. Volcanoes hidden beneath the Earth's surface erupt and ash clouds the sky. Disease spreads quickly. Crops are destroyed and food becomes scarce. Electricity and heat become almost completely unavailable. Suddenly homework is the last thing on Miranda's mind and she and her family struggle to survive in rural Pennsylvania. Told through Miranda's diary entries, Susan Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It is actually sometimes hard to read. Not because the writing is poor - it's not - but because it becomes so easy to imagine that this disaster could really happen to us. I personally found myself looking at the moon strangely and wondering if I had enough canned food in the house after I finished reading it. The diary format works very well in this book because it allows readers to focus on Miranda's emotional response to the disaster rather than dwelling on the scientific whys. Readers only know as much about what's happening in the rest of the world as Miranda does, and that honestly isn't much. But this format makes it easy to get inside Miranda's head and connect with her situation on a personal level.
I read this book recently for a second time as it was this month's selection for my teen book club. It's just as powerful of a read the second time around!
Overall Grade: A-
If you enjoyed Miranda's story there are two sequels to this book. In The Dead and the Gone we learn about this same disaster from the perspective of a boy in New York City. The conclusion to this trilogy, This World We Live In, brings Miranda's and Alex's stories together.
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