Life As We Knew It series

Author:
Susan Beth Pfeffer

The middle school that I was frequently subbing at chose this book series to end the school year.  Along with reading the books, the 8th grade teachers had put together a fun day of activities pertaining to the books.  The concept of the books is that young people are put in situations where their decisions and resources could mean life or death.  The life they knew no longer exists and everything comes down to survival.

I totally got into it!  Read all the books.  Problem is, I automatically started planning what my strategy would be if world disaster was in sight.  What tasks would I delegate to who? What grocery store would I hit up?  What items would I go for first? What items around the home would I have of use already? Where's the most optimal home base? Fuel for a car? Fuel for heating? You can see how reading these books was not exactly a calming activity for me. But hey, if the moon ever gets knocked out of orbit, I'll be one of the first ones ready to respond.  Well, me and the whole 8th grade team that is. 

Thing is I have a tendency to be worried about natural disasters, even if the chances are miniscule.  Even as a young girl I convinced my parents to stock up on some essentials during the Millennium Bug scare, also referred to as the Y2K back at the start of 2000.  Remember that whole thing? Heck even then I was in survivalist mode.

Maybe it's all the movies and books out there that proclaim the world is ending, or at least being significantly destroyed and altered.  Some people now are making sure they have a small stockpile or at least some essentials for a survival situation.  Maybe it's like back in the 50's when people were putting up bomb shelters for protection against what they saw as an impending nuclear war.  Well no matter what we may or may not experience during our lifetime, these books bring you into a world falling apart at the seams. Written in the perspective of the young survivalists, you can't help but cheer them on, and pray we will never be in the same situation. 


Summaries

Life As We Knew It
When Miranda first hears the warnings that a meteor is headed on a collision path with the moon, they just sound like an excuse for extra homework assignments.  But her disbelief turns to fear in a split second as the entire world witnesses a lunar impact that catastrophically alters the earth's climate-and results in mass devastation. 
Told in Miranda's diary entries, this is a heart-pounding account of her struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all - hope - in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar time. 

The Dead & The Gone
Alex Morales was working behind the counter at Joey's Pizza when life as he knew it changed forever.  He was worried about getting elected as senior class president and making the grades to land him in a good college.  He never expected an asteroid would hit the moon.  He never expected to be fighting just to stay alive.


This World We Live In
It's been a year since a meteor collided with the moon.  For Miranda Evans, life as she knew it no longer exists.  Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce.
The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda's father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow.  One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda's complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for the future thwart their relationship.  Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.  



The Shade of the Moon
It's been more than two years since Jon Evan and his family left Pennsylvania hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted bu the deaths of those he loved.  His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in Sexton, the well-protected enclave he entered with his stepmother, Lisa, and her son, Gabe, using the three safe-town passes they were given.  But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can jeopardize his life and that of his sister, Miranda, who lives outside the walls of Sexton.  When everything he values is at stake, can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?