“Life as We Knew It”: Apocalyptic Novel Helps Teen Face Fears

Many betweeners and teens are experiencing apocalyptic nightmares and anxiety regarding the potential for the end of the world. These fears often coincide with becoming more independent and an awareness of war, turmoil and tragedy in the news.  My nephew Michael was no exception. Rather than listen to everyone pooh-poohing the notion, Michael found an exceptional teen novel entitled “Life as We Knew It” by Susan Beth Pfeffer that helped him to confront his fears and face what he believed to be a potential reality.

What follows is my nephew’s review of this first book in a three-volume series. However, Michael does feel that this book is not for all. Michael warns that, “If you are the type that like happy books, where everything always works out okay, then this isn’t for you.”

Spoiler Alert: This review contains details of the book that gives away many climactic scenes. Do not read further if you do not want to know what happens:

 

LIFE AS WE KNEW IT        

By: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Reviewed by Michael Caye (at age 11)

This amazing story is about when Miranda, Matt, Jon, Mom, and Mrs. Nesbitt lived in Pennsylvania and found themselves in a world that might have an ending.

This story begins when they heard on the news that a meteor might hit the moon and the world might end. The family went to see the big meteor and it was coming close to the earth. Mom, Miranda and Mrs. Nesbitt went to the stores and got as much food as they could because the stores were going to begin closing. The next thing that happened was that Miranda looked up in the sky and it was all gray. The cause of that was that the volcanoes were erupting everywhere, and they started to lose their electricity. Then one day Miranda, Jon and Matt went to school and there was hardly anyone there. The excuse was that all the parents wanted them to stay with them. Miranda met a boy named Dan, and they began to like each other and began dating which the mom did not like. All over the place there were people dying because they could not get the medication they needed to survive and the sadest person who died was Mrs. Nesbitt. During the days and weeks the family was doing fine and then one day it hit the moon and they all began getting sick. They could not go to the doctors because Peter the doctor died, so Miranda had to take care of them. Then Miranda went to see if they got any mail from their dad. And when she got there she saw a banner that said Food so Miranda went and the person said would you like any food? And of course Miranda said yes an they were going to give them four bags of food to them each week.

Life As We Knew It was an amazing book because I never wanted the book to end it was so good. My first reason I liked it was that there were some really scary parts that I liked one thing that was scary in the book was that the meteor was getting close to the moon, and that there was all kinds of volcanoes erupting and killing people. My second reason is that there was some really sad parts too, like when everyone started dying and Mrs. Nesbitt.

Monsters and Vampires and Werewolves, OH MY!

The popular “Twilight” series has spawned an entire genre of literature now known as Paranormal Romance or what I like to call “creatures of the night and the women who love them”. Apparently these novels entail the ultimate in forbidden love. However, loving a monster, vampire or werewolf is anything but new. Women referring to a certain man as a wolf, demon, monster, blood-sucker all go back to the dawn of time and this name-calling obviously continues today throughout all forms of media.

If your teen is “into” paranormal romance, he or she is old enough to also read the originals of paranormal romance: Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein”, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde”. Amazon offers all three together with a very insightful Introduction by Stephen King.

As Mr. King refers to these novels as the “personification of evil”, this makes for a great topic for sharing thoughts and concepts of evil with your teen, maybe even starting a family-version of a book club to discuss these works of literature around the dinner table. For example, questions for discussion could include: “Who is the depiction of evil? Dr. Victor Frankenstein or the monster he created?”; “Do you think scientists today play God?”; “Where should science draw the line?”; “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the first novel to explore evil as internal force and part of human nature rather than an external force such as the moon, a bite from another creature, creatures from the underworld sent to plague mankind, etc. What do you think? Is evil internal or external? Was Dr. Jekyll justified in trying to rid his DNA of evil?”

I’d love to read your thoughts on the above questions. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section of this blog!

Fresh Eyes For Harry Potter

Want to share the captivating magic of Harry Potter with your children (and re-live the magic for yourself)?

Well, it’s not easy but it can be done! Family friends, The Mornewecks, laid down the law among friends and relations that sharing the Harry Potter series with their children was a family event and under no circumstances were the children to see the movies before they had read the books. Fortunately for The Morneweck’s, everyone respected their wishes.

We were not so lucky. One of our nephews became introduced to the movies before the books and even thouh he fell in love with the series, it has been difficult to get him interested in the books. Meanwhile, his 12-yea, older brother, Michael, was too busy with other things and never saw any of the movies. What luck!

At least with the latter nephew, we are getting to re-live the magic of the series again through his fresh eyes. What fun! The magic is coming alive all over again.

Upon encouraging his younger brother to read the books, he said, “Just keep reading “Sorcerer’s Stone ‘til you get to Diagon Alley – then you’re hooked and you can’t put it down.” A truer word has never been spoken but unfortunately, it has yet to take with the pre-read, movie-watcher but we keep hoping.

So the moral of this particular blog is:  Avoid the movies until after the children in your life have a chance to read the books and experience the magic for themselves – you’ll be happy you did!

"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" Did Tim Burton and I Read the Same Book?

After the release of the controversial film “Hunger Games”, my sister – the mother of two betweener boys - asked me to start reading and reviewing teen literature and to set what I determined to be the appropriate age-level. A quick search on popular teen novels, listed, among others, “AbrahamLincoln: Vampire Hunter” written by Seth Grahame-Smith who also authored “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”.

A quick, enjoyable read, the NOVEL: “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” proved to be a page-turner of real history intertwined with an ax-wielding Abe Lincoln turned action-hero saving the nation from Confederate vampires. The novel can make even the most bored history student intrigued by the events surrounding the Civil War and light a flame of academic curiosity to search for what was ‘real’ versus ‘twisted’ history.

My recommendation for age-appropriate for the NOVEL would be 13 or 14, not because of violence or vampires but because the children should be old-enough to understand and enjoy spoofs, parodies and even dark comedies. I was envisioning the film version to be something along the lines of a Civil War version of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". After all, Mr. Burton and Seth Grahame-Smith had just collaborated on the spoof of the television series, “Dark Shadows”.

So imagine my surprise to see that the film version of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” was not a PG-13, tongue-in-cheek look at history, but an R-rated, blood and guts, slasher movie. So I ask again, Did Tim Burton and I read the same book? I know he is Hollywood’s artsy, creative darling but I wish someone should have stood up to him on this one. The great thing about Seth’s books is that they encourage teens to learn and become fascinated by history and literature without even realizing that they are doing it. I hope this journey to la-la land doesn’t detract Seth from his true purpose of drawing teens into a lifetime of learning.

Meanwhile, here's my advice: Read the book. Skip the movie.