Teaser Tuesday: 4-6-2010

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you have given!
Please avoid spoilers!

But then I see Alex and Julie together, talking quietly, playing chess, and I know that if people had seen Matt with Jon or me, pre-Syl Matt, that is, they would have fallen in love with us the way Dad has with Alex and Julie.  If it had been Matt and Jon and me and we didn't have any parents, any family except each other, and people had reached out, included us in their families, it would have meant everything to us. (This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer, p117)

This World We Live In
Publisher/Publication Date: Apr 1, 2010, Harcourt Children's Books
ISBN: 978-0547248042
256 pages

The Dead & the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Book Review)

Title: The Dead & the Gone
Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Harcourt

My synopsis: Alex is 17, a junior in high school, and living in New York City when the moon is hit by asteroid and knocked off it's axis. His mom is called in to the hospital she works at to help deal with the emergency and his dad is in Mexico attending a funeral. Alex does not realize it at the time, but neither parent will return and he is left to care for his 2 younger sisters, Briana and Julie.

Where Life As We Knew It was a teenager's perspective of the catastrophe in a smaller, more rural area - The Dead and the Gone deals with a teenager's perspective in a large city. As the realization that everything has changed becomes evident, Alex decides to send Briana to the country to live and work at a convent. She will be helping with the farming, but she will also have food to eat everyday, which will mean the food supplies he has for himself and Julie will last longer.

Even with Briana gone, things are still tough. Alex becomes hardened to seeing dead bodies everywhere and soon is taking things off the bodies to trade for food. As the weather becomes uncharacteristically cooler, Julie and Alex continue to live alone and attend school in order to get the free food at lunch. They return home one day to find Briana home, suffering from asthma. She was sent home because she could no longer work outside. Now the food that was in short supply already just became more meager. How much longer can they survive like this?

My thoughts: This book also had an underlying theme of hope in a hopeless situation - and of a family growing closer together and overcoming adversity together. Alex already seemed to be somewhat mature and ready for responsibility. I think the real growth came from Julie though. She was the youngest and as all younger children tend to be, a little spoiled. Alex did not get along with her at all, so was happy for Briana's interference. It was hard for him to send Briana away because that meant he would have to deal with Julie alone. Julie quickly grows up though, and becomes a big help to Alex, hardly ever complaining and joining Alex in caring for Briana when she returns. I am looking forward to the next book The World We Live In to see where things will go from here.

The Dead & the Gone
Publisher/Publication Date: Harcourt, 2008 (though a paperback version was just published this month from Graphia)
ISBN: 978-0-15-206311-5
321 pages










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Waiting on Wednesday: This World We Live In

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Publication Date: April 1, 2010

About the book: It's been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate. 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 his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

About the author: SUSAN BETH PFEFFER's first two apocalyptic novels, Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone, were widely praised by reviewers as action-packed, thrilling, and utterly terrifying. Life As We Knew It received numerous starred reviews and honors and was nominated for many state awards. Ms. Pfeffer lives in Middletown, New York.

I just finished the second book in this series, The Dead and the Gone and can't wait for this third book to come out!!!

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Library Loot: 12-2-2009

I have been spending way too much time at the library recently - the problem is that I have actually been combing back over all my Friday Finds and Waiting on Wednesdays and reserving them!

Library Loot is hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

When life as Alex Morales had known it changed forever, he was working behind the counter at Joey's Pizza. He was worried about getting elected as senior class president and making the grades to land him in a good college. He never expected that an asteroid would hit the moon, knocking it closer in orbit to the earth and catastrophically altering the earth's climate.

He never expected to be fighting just to stay alive.

Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event from a small-town perspective. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican New Yorker. When Alex's parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland.

With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities. (inside cover)

The Last Summer of Her Other Life by Jean Reynolds Page

From Jean Reynolds Page - the critically acclaimed author of The Space Between Before and After and one of the most compelling voices in contemporary women's fiction -- comes a dazzling novel of loss and redemption, of relationships that damage and those that heal.

Thirty-nine and pregnant by a man she's decided to leave behind in California, Jules' life is changing. Always the protected daughter, she must now relinquish that role and prepare to be a mother herself. But her efforts are upstaged by shocking allegations from a local teen in her North Carolina hometown. The boy has accused her of what the police are calling "inappropriate sexual contact." Three men rally in her defense: Lincoln, her brother, who flies in from New York to help her; Sam, her high school boyfriend, who after so many years still offers unconditional support; and Walt, the uncle of the teen, who charms Jules with his intelligence and unanticipated kindness.

Her search for the truth about the troubled teenager becomes, for Jules, a first step toward discovering the woman she wishes to be. But with so many wrong choices behind her, how can she trust herself with the future of her unborn child? (back cover)

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Book Review)

Title: Life As We Knew It
Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
Publisher: Harcourt Books

(I checked this out from the library.)

First sentence: Lisa is pregnant.

Miranda is a normal 15 year old. She journals about school, fights with her mom, her dad's new wife and her pregnancy - just normal everyday stuff. Even when a meteor is predicted to be on a collision course with the moon, it doesn't seem too exciting. It just gives the teachers a chance to give extra homework surrounding the upcoming collision.

When the meteor actually hits and the moon is knocked off it's axis, everything changes. Tsunami's, earthquakes, volcanoes become prevalent. The moon hangs lower in the sky and seems to be a warning of more changes to come. Food and gas become scarce and Miranda and her family begin to stockpile everything from food to firewood. Weather changes cause crops to die and snow to fall early. An influenza wipes out much of the population. Miranda and her family must come up with new and creative ways to meet everyday occasions.

The entire story is told as journal entries in Miranda's journal - so the perspective is that of a teenager's. It made me think of all the things that I take for granted every day - from indoor plumbing, to being able to flip on a light switch when it gets dark. I had never thought about those things that the moon affects - like tides - and how they would change if anything happened to the moon. There is hope in the book, even though everything seems pretty hopeless. Miranda and her family really band together in the face of adversity and their commitment to each other is very apparent towards the end of the book. It doesn't have the happily-ever-after ending and I am looking forward to reading the rest of this series!

I really enjoyed this story, though I don't seem to be able to put into words why (could have something to do with the pounding going on in the next room - my husband is busting out the tiled kitchen floor to put in a new one this week - there will be pictures later!) I have the second book, The Dead and the Gone, already checked out from the library and ready to read!