Boy does this book make me want to get my foodstorage! Great story about a young girl in a world where due to a freak astiriod striking the moon, the world has competley changed climate and everythung else. Loved the honest narration and how it made me think what I would do if I was in the same situation. ( )

Great story of survival and struggle. Miranda and her family struggle to live after a worldwide disaster changes everything. This book was riveting. ( )

One of those books that grabs you early and keeps you reading almost compulsively all the way through. I thought the scene where the moon is actually knocked out of orbit was really well done—the sudden terror evidenced by the screaming of the unnamed woman and man (the moment when the cheering stops and the screaming begins)—the confusion and wrongness of the moment was very skillfully rendered. The author did a good job of keeping things interesting even once Miranda and her family are pretty much housebound (not that their situation doesn’t remain interesting, but it’s easy to imagine how it could get boring to read about four people trapped in a house for pages and pages, if it hadn’t been handled so well). The diary format was a good choice, because it meant we were never certain whether Miranda would survive, since she could have kept the diary up to a point and then died and we wouldn’t know until the end. I found myself slightly let down by then ending, however. I didn’t actually want anything terrible to happen to any of Miranda’s family, but it felt a little too neatly wrapped up (I won't go into detail here, to avoid giving away everything). ( )

Summary: Life As We Knew It is a diary form novel from the point of view of a 16 year old Miranda. Miranda was living a normal teenage life when an asteroid hits the moon and the entire world changes. There are natural disasters on a grand scale; earthquakes, tsunamis, and fires. Miranda 's whole life changes and survival becomes the only focus. Many challenges come to her and her family such as starvation, illness, and bitter cold. Her diary reflects the mental reactions to the rapidly changing world around her. The end will show you Miranda's true character.
Review: The survivalist mentality that enters this book so quickly really drew me in. I could only imagine the panic that would ensue after a series of natural disasters that occurred in this book. It brought me to think about the question, 'How prepared are we?' What this novel did was get me thinking. I passed "Life As We Knew It" to my father and we had a great discussion.
School Use: Many discussion topics can be drawn from this well written novel. There are existential questions, humanity questions and communal responsibility questions that could all be used as group discussion topics.

Characters are well developed and believable even if their plight is that of science-fiction...or is it?