Life As We Knew It
Life As We Knew It
Susan Beth Pfeffer
Right after I started reading this book, my furnace died. My house grew more and more chill, and I huddled under layers of blankets, cuddling hot water bottles, and taking extra hot baths to warm up again. And this book made me feel lucky. Lucky to have hot water. Lucky to be able to go to the store. Lucky to have a working cell phone. Lucky to know that all my loved ones are ok. Lucky to be alive.
In Life As We Knew It, everyone starts out really excited about the the asteroid that is going to crash into the moon. Telescopes are dragged out of attics, lawn chairs set up to enjoy the spectacle. But when the impact actually shifts the position of the moon, suddenly lurching it towards the earth, everything starts to go wrong. Floods, volcanoes, earthquakes and countless other disasters result, forcing all of humanity to go into survival mode.
This book is scary stuff. It really makes you think about just what would you do if stuck in a disaster. Who could you trust? What resources could you draw upon? Just how much hunger and stress could you take?
While certainly dark in some ways, this book avoids being the horror story it could have been by only touching on the bad behavior of some members of the community, and not exploring what to me is the scariest possibility of the situation: when people prey upon each other.
Over all, this is an exciting read, that kept me up till 2am (a rarity now days), which I will definitely be booktalking to 8th graders this spring.
Susan Beth Pfeffer
Right after I started reading this book, my furnace died. My house grew more and more chill, and I huddled under layers of blankets, cuddling hot water bottles, and taking extra hot baths to warm up again. And this book made me feel lucky. Lucky to have hot water. Lucky to be able to go to the store. Lucky to have a working cell phone. Lucky to know that all my loved ones are ok. Lucky to be alive.
In Life As We Knew It, everyone starts out really excited about the the asteroid that is going to crash into the moon. Telescopes are dragged out of attics, lawn chairs set up to enjoy the spectacle. But when the impact actually shifts the position of the moon, suddenly lurching it towards the earth, everything starts to go wrong. Floods, volcanoes, earthquakes and countless other disasters result, forcing all of humanity to go into survival mode.
This book is scary stuff. It really makes you think about just what would you do if stuck in a disaster. Who could you trust? What resources could you draw upon? Just how much hunger and stress could you take?
While certainly dark in some ways, this book avoids being the horror story it could have been by only touching on the bad behavior of some members of the community, and not exploring what to me is the scariest possibility of the situation: when people prey upon each other.
Over all, this is an exciting read, that kept me up till 2am (a rarity now days), which I will definitely be booktalking to 8th graders this spring.