Life As We Knew It: The Book That Inspires

Life As We Knew It: The Book That Inspires

Reading books has a lot of benefits for students of all ages. Books other than those assigned as part of coursework must also be read because not only are they entertaining but can also teach a valuable lesson or two. That is one reason students should always look through their school or college library to see if they can find a nice title to take home and read through. 

Some titles, however, are so good that they often become part of one’s course anyway. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is one such book. College and university students often choose this title when they are tasked with writing a summary of a story for an assignment. To get help with summary writing of your own, you can check out another life as we knew it summary to go through what the book is about. Reading such a summary will be of great value as you will be able to see quickly what the most important aspects of the book are before you have to write your own review of the book. 

When you do read its summary for research, however, you will likely want to jump into the story yourself. This is a very gripping text with a young hero and a relatable, realistic tale which has a good chance to give you some inspiration of reading more titles like this in the future. 

What Is It About?

Life As We Knew It is the story of an apocalyptic-level event told through the eyes of a teenager named Miranda. When the moon is hit by a meteor, its orbit changes and it comes a little closer to Earth. When that happens, any good science student should know that there are catastrophic results. The weather patterns get disrupted, huge tidal waves destroy coastal cities, volcanoes erupt, and earthquakes ravage the planet. The sun also gets blocked by ash, diseases spread like wildfire, stores run empty, and there is no power. 

Through all of these extreme hardships, Miranda and her family must survive on some canned food that they are able to get, and that is what the story is about. 

Why Is It A Good Read?

The pros of reading books like this one are many. Whether you are a student or not, a story like this can teach you a lot that you wouldn’t necessarily learn as part of your academic education. Some of the reasons that make Life As We Knew It a gripping and inspirational story include:

• Survival

The story is about survival without the amenities and services we take for granted in our everyday lives today. How does one survive in a hostile atmosphere without power or an abundance of food? How does one stay safe from diseases when there are no hospitals operational just around the corner? One of the pros of reading books like this is that these questions can be answered a little more easily after reading them.  

• Climate Change

Even though the tale is not directly about climate change, the changes that happen to the earth are very real indeed. Everything that happens very suddenly in the book can be connected to the overall effects of global warming that the world is facing right now and so the book gives students a good look at what could happen over a long period of time. After reading this title, a student might find some inspiration of reading about the potential dangers of long-term climate change and might want to do something about it. 

• Perseverance and Resourcefulness

Because the whole world has been turned upside down, Miranda and her family have to be very resourceful to keep on living. This is a very important lesson for any student as you never know when you might need to be resourceful yourself. On top of that, the book also teaches us what the most important aspect of life is. Some readers might conclude that it is love and family while others may feel like it’s the survival instinct human beings naturally have. 

Conclusion – Is It A Worthy Read?

Definitely. Life As We Knew It is a very strong narrative about a global catastrophe that anyone can relate to because we see the negative effects of global warming on a daily basis. The rising tides, the melting glaciers, the disruption of agriculture, acid rains, failing infrastructure, and so much more that happens around us is because of climate change even though it happens in the book, albeit on a much larger scale, for a different reason. 

And that is perhaps the biggest reason why the text feels so real – it talks about all of these issues even though the reason for their existence is something that has a very small chance of ever happening. Because of these realistic effects of a rather unrealistic cause, the author has created a book that feels much more relatable and real than it does a work of fiction.