Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Wow. This book made me want to stock my basement with food and bottled water. This is the diary of Miranda, a 16-year-old who experiences the end of life as she has always known it. A meteor hits the moon and knocks it out of its orbit. There is no immediate effect on Miranda's family in Pennsylvania, but it quickly leads to planetary disaster--tidal waves destroy the coasts, volcanoes erupt and block the sun, and supplies of food and energy are completely disrupted. Miranda and her mother and two brothers stockpile food and try to survive as things get worse and worse. Little by little everything normal is gone--phone service, electricity, school, even sunlight. Miranda's family eats less and less and must live through the winter huddled by the wood stove in one room of their house. And they are the lucky ones. They have firewood and some canned food, and so far they haven't gotten sick. This book will make you think about all the things you take for granted and about how you would react to "the end of the world."