Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Imagine this is your life: two brothers, amicably divorced parents, dad with new wife and baby on the way. You are starting to date. Your best friends are in the middle of another stupid fight and your mom won't let you go to the pond to ice skate because an injury isn't fully healed. And homework. Oh, the homework.

Sounds pretty normal, right? This was Miranda's life until an asteroid collides with the moon, throwing it off it's axis and causing tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. The weather is no longer predictable and it's severe. Miranda's mom sends her and her brothers to the store to buy up all the canned food and medical supplies they can find. Then school is shut down. Gas is running out. Electricity and water can no longer be counted on- sometimes they are available for an hour a day, sometimes not at all. Miranda spends her days huddled in the livingroom with her family, wondering if friends are alive and when their food will run out.

Still sound normal?

***** stars out of five- this book is amazing.

We All Fall Down- Robert Cormier

Okay, he may not be the newest writer on the block, but he is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I guess this should be a given. I'm a teen librarian and Robert Cormier is one of THE teen authors- but in my frantic race to keep up with everything that has already been written as well as is being written, I have not read as many of his books as I should have. Of course, there's The Chocolate War, but have you ever read The Rag and Bone Shop? How about We All Fall Down? Let's start there:

We'll begin with Buddy, a middle-class junior in high school. His parents have just recently separated. His mother is like a ghost in the house since his father left to be with his girlfriend. His sister Addy hides in her room. What does Buddy do? He drinks. Gin, mostly. Another way he blows off steam is hanging out with Harry Flowers and his crew. They spend their weeknights drinking and then having "funtime" which is always something different, usually decided on by Harry. Mostly it's lighting off fireworks or making a scene in the movie theater. Harry thinks it's fun until one night "funtime" is trashing a house and hurting a girl.

Jane is a junior at a high school one town over from Buddy's. She is getting over the shock of having her house trashed and her sister Karen ending up in a coma. Karen made the mistake of coming home early the night the trashers were there and ended up falling (being pushed?) down a flight of stairs. Now all Jane wants is her sister to wake up and her life and family to return to normal.

The Avenger watched that night as the high school kids trashed that house down the street. He knows who they are and is planning his revenge. He's no stranger to murder and will do what he has to do until there is justice.

The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

Matthew lives a life of fear. He fears something that is out of his control, something so unpredictable and explosive that he nevers knows what will happen from minute to minute. He holds his breath, praying that this hour will be safe, maybe the next. He is afraid for himself, but more than that his afraid for his sisters. He has no means of escape and the problem won't go away.

The problem is his mother.

Matthew lives in a small, rundown apartment in Boston with his sisters and his mother Nikki. Nikki is an emotionally unstable woman who continually uses her children when she needs them, neglects them when she doesn't, puts them in danger, comes home drunk, and sometimes doesn't come home at all. Matthew and Callie, because they are the oldest, have the responsibility of taking care of themselves as well as Emmy. They try to live their lives quietly and gauge Nikki's mood in order to try and keep her calm.
When Matthew and Callie meet Murdoch McIlvane, they think they may have met the answer to their prayers. Matthew hopes Murdoch can save them. But can he?

***** stars!