The World is Ending...

Or at least that is the premise of The Last Survivors Series written by Susan Beth Pfeffer.  I had never read anything by this author before, but when I saw the title as both a Goodreads recommendation as well as on the list of top teen downloads from Overdrive at the Cincinnati Public Library, I figured I'd give it a whirl.

I DEVOURED this book in a matter of days.  The storyline was so different from anything I'd ever read before.  It's not exactly dystopian literature, but if you like that type of reading, you would also probably like Life As We Know It, the first book in the series.  The story starts like any realistic fiction book, by introducing us to the main characters and the Pennsylvania town where they live, complete with the students abuzz about that night's homework assignment: to watch an asteroid hit the moon.  Scientists have been buzzing about it for days; now, students finally get to witness the impact.  But things don't go exactly as planned.  The asteroid knocks the moon off it's orbit and it becomes too close to the Earth.  And the effects are drastic.  Tsunamis and earthquakes and angry tides.  It seems Mother Nature is dumping everything on the world at once.  Miranda's mother goes nuts and takes the kids out of school right away and heads straight to the grocery store where they load up on all sorts of nonperishable food and supplies to stock their home.  Her brothers spend days chopping trees on their property and filling the house with firewood.  Things go from bad to worse in a matter of about a month.  Soon, there is no more sunshine and the sky is filled with gray dust.  Then the climate has a major switch and it starts to freeze in August, shortly followed by full-blown winter with temps below zero.  Many die.  Many.  But somehow, Miranda and her family all survive, living in the sunroom of their house, staying as warm as possible with the aid of their wood-burning stove.  I don't want to spoil the end of the novel, but there is a sudden change with a chance for hope.

I was so eager to start the second novel, The Dead and the Gone, because I liked the first one so much. So I was a tad disappointed when I downloaded the book to my Kindle to discover that it wasn't continuing Miranda's story, but instead telling the story of another family that faces the same crisis, this time in New York City.  The writing is still strong and I'm starting to connect to these characters.  However, I do hope Pfeffer continues the story of Miranda and her family in the 3rd or 4th book in the series.

For now, it has made me wonder about the possibility of natural disaster and how my family would survive.  We have zero food reserves.  Zero.  Does anyone stockpile food in the case of natural disaster?  I had a student write his creative nonfiction piece about this topic earlier this trimester.  Combined with this series, it really made me think about the idea.  It couldn't hurt to have a few extra canned good lying around.  Could it?