Module 4: Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life as We Knew It. Orlando: Harcourt, 2006. Print. ISBN: 9780152058265

Review
"Sometimes I've thought I'm keeping it for people 200 years from now, so they can see what our lives were like."
"Sometimes I've thought I'm keeping it for that day when people no longer exist but butterflies can read."
"But today, when I am 17 and warm and well fed, I'm keeping this journal for myself so I can always remember life as we knew it, life as we know it, for a time when I am no longer in the sunroom."

A catastrophe has hit the earth...or better yet the moon. An asteroid has hit the moon and knocked it closer to the Earth. When this happens the Earth is changed forever; volcanoes going off every where, floods, and death everywhere you look. Miranda and her family live in a small Pennsylvania town, and they are going to have to learn how to survive as everything collapses around them. We follow Miranda's account of the events through the diary she keeps through it all.

As you start reading Miranda's diary, you know what is coming. What you do not realize how much would be effected if the moon is ever knocked closer to the Earth. Miranda and her family (her mom and two brothers) are just your everyday family. But everyone goes into survival mode once the moon hits. At times, Life as We Knew It is so realistic that it will give you chills. By writing this book in a journal format, Susan Beth Pfeffer is able to create the raw emotions that a catastrophe would create. Each major problem seems to lead to another problem, but some how Miranda and her family make it through. A School Library Journal reviewer stated, "Pfeffer tones down the terror, but otherwise crafts a frighteningly plausible account of the local effects of a near-future worldwide catastrophe. The author provides a glimmer of hope at the end, but readers will still be left stunned and thoughtful." Who would have thought the moon being knocked closer to the world could inspire such a gritty but hopeful tale?

Activities
Since the book is told from Miranda's point of view, students will each take a major event in the book and write it from another character's point of view. Students will be expected to write it like a journal entry.


Peters, John. "Life as We Knew It." School Library Joural. Amazon. Web. 7 Nov. 2010. http://www.amazon.com/Life-Knew-Susan-Beth-Pfeffer/dp/0152061541/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289167265&sr=1-1.