Becky’s Online Reading Group

Life As We Knew It
Day One
Chapter One through Chapter Three

Chapter One

First sentence: “Lisa is pregnant.”

Our narrator, just so you know, is Miranda. Who is Lisa? Why do we care? Well, Lisa is Miranda’s stepmother. The one delivering the news? Her father. Why should we care? Well, Miranda has a hard time caring as well. She’s both happy and upset at the news. More worried as to how her mom will handle it, and how her brothers–one older, Matt, and one younger, Jonny–will handle it.

Life As We Knew It is written in diary format. Our perspective is Miranda’s perspective. We witness everything firsthand through her accounts. We know what she wants us to know.

The first few pages all seem pretty typical. Teen girl narrator. Divorced parents. Stepmother. Family drama with mom and siblings. Friend drama with fights and friends drifting apart, changing. School drama with teachers, homework, studying, tests. A teen wanting to learn to drive. A teen wanting to date. Same old, same old, right? Keep reading!

The transition from your stereotypical teen melodrama (rather disguised as “realistic fiction” or “romance”) is gradual. We see the gradual shift of Miranda’s focus, her attention.

The first hint of trouble is on Miranda’s diary entry of May 13th:

“He asked if any of us had heard about the asteroid and the moon” (9).

Her mom’s date, Peter, brings it up casually. Almost as an ice breaker. Something light, something neutral, something safe to discuss.

The next hint comes a few days later. May 16th.

“All of a sudden this moon thing is the biggest thing ever.” (10)

But it’s “big” not because people are worried, scared, anxious, panicky. (Think the Simpsons episode where Bart sees the asteroid coming (sees it coming on the telescope) and everyone panics and takes refuge in Ned’s shelter.) No, it’s big because it’s historic. History-in-the-making.

History-in-the-making translates into just one thing: homework, homework, and more homework. Three papers for three classes.

I do like Miranda’s brainstorming for topics. Especially her Star Trek references. (He’s dead, Jim)

The May 17th entry is a big one. You won’t really see it as such until a bit later on. But it’s the last “before” entry.

Life As We Knew It is about to change. Big time.

Chapter Two

First sentence: “Sometimes when Mom is getting ready to write a book she says she doesn’t know where to start, that the ending is so clear to her that the beginning doesn’t seem important anymore. I feel that way now only I don’t know what the ending is, not even what the ending is tonight” (16).

She then recounts her day from the very beginning. The morning bus ride, the school day, homework, dinner. More of the usual. Then she recounts the moment, the big moment.

“For a moment I thought about all the people throughout history who saw Halley’s Comet and didn’t know what it was, just that it was there and frightening and awe inspiring. For the briefest flick of a second, I could have been a 16 year old in the Middle Ages looking up at the sky, marveling at its mysteries, or an Aztec or an Apache. For that tiny instant, I was every 16 year old in history, not knowing what the skies foretold about my future.” (page eighteen)

She even talks about witnessing the impact.

“And then it hit. Even though we knew it was going to, we were still shocked when the asteroid actually made contact with the moon. With our moon. At that second, I think we all realized that it was Our Moon and if it was attacked, then we were attacked.” (18-19)

She then talks about the panic. Starting small, then growing and growing. Panic. Fear. Worry. Thousands of questions needing answers.

When a crisis happens, where do people turn? The TV of course. While their cable is out, their internet is out, their cell phones are out, their land lines (phone lines) are busy, they are still able to pick up some channels, some news. They don’t like what they hear. The news isn’t good.

Tsunamis.

“It was like one of those lists on the radio to let you know which schools were having snow days. Only instead of it being school districts in the area, it was whole cities, and it wasn’t just snow.” (24)

The effects are just beginning–the faintest sign of what is to come–at the close of this chapter. But already change is there. So many questions left unanswered, some spoken, some unspoken. Everyone is afraid of the answers they might hear.

Chapter Three:

First sentence: “I woke up around 6 to the sound of the phone ringing. I threw on my robe and went to Mom’s room” (27)

I bet that is one of the rare times (so far) Miranda is happy to be woken at 6 in the morning! They had been unable to get in touch with her father and Lisa the night before. So it was quite a relief to hear his voice, to find out he’s okay.

School is still a go. It hasn’t been cancelled. But it must have been one of the worst school days ever. I shudder just thinking about it. The intense, severe thunder and lightning storms. The rain. The wind. The loss of electricity. I’d be the unnamed kid in the hallway who was screaming, crying, shaking, and wailing “I don’t want to die.”

A couple of hours into the school day (still morning) Miranda’s mom shows up to take her. Mom has a plan. And she needs help. Back at the car, she finds out all about it. Mom has it all together, and they are on their way to the end-of-the-world shopping spree. Mom. Mrs. Nesbitt. Miranda. Jonny. First stop? Grocery store.

One of my favorite lines: “What about desserts?” I asked. “If the world comes to an end, I’m going to want cookies.” “We’re all going to want cookies if the world comes to an end,” Mrs. Nesbitt agreed. “And chips and pretzels. If the world is coming to an end, why should I care about my blood pressure?” “Okay, we’ll die fat,” Mom said. “Grab what you can grab and ram it into your wagons. But remember if we actually need this stuff, we’re going to be a lot more grateful for a can of soup than for a box of stale cookies.” “Speak for yourself,” Mrs. Nesbitt said. (34)

“The supermarket reminded me of the hallway at school this morning, and maybe because I’d just been through all that, the store didn’t scare me as much as it ordinarily would have. So what if people were screaming and crying and fighting. I plowed through people and raced to canned vegetables.” (35)
“Except for the total terror I was feeling in the pit of my stomach, it was kind of fun, like those game shows where someone wins five minutes at the supermarket except there were dozens of other winners and we were all there at the same time.” (36)

Miranda goes through three rounds of loading and unloading her cart.

Next stop? The strip mall.

The third stop? The convenience store.

Then it’s home. Exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed. Her mom just collapses in tears.

Can’t say I blame her.

What do you think so far? Of the characters? Miranda? Mrs. Nesbitt? Mom? Jonny? Megan and her other friends? Of the plot? Is it making you want to go grocery shopping?