YA Review: Life as we knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda is a 16 year old high school student with ordinary problems.  She's trying to figure out who to go to homecoming with.  Her dad is over the moon because his new wife is pregnant; her junior-high brother is ecstatic because he's signed up for a baseball camp a long way from home.  Then an asteroid hits the moon-- scientists knew it was going to happen, and millions of people were outside to watch-- but no one knew the asteroid would be so big, or the effects so massive.  The moon moved out of its orbit, much closer to earth.  Tidal waves hit the coasts.  Power and gas supplies were knocked out.  Grocery stores ran out of food within days.  The temperature dropped significantly.  And winter was just starting.  Suddenly, faced with the issue of life and death survival, Miranda is longing for life as we knew it. This is the first of three books, although the second novel tells of the same events as they happen in New York City rather than semi-rural Pennsylvania. This has been a mainstay in book talks for several years.