This World We Live In

Gr 7 Up—Listeners do not have to be familiar with the first two titles—Life As We Knew It (2006) and Dead and Gone (2008)—in Susan Beth Pfeffer's "Last Survivors" trilogy to understand the final installment (2010, all Harcourt and Listening Library) about the aftereffects of the destruction of the Moon by a meteor resulting in the death of millions of people and the alteration of the Earth's climate. There's just enough exposition to enable listeners to jump right in. The tone swings wildly from adventure to romance to disillusionment as Miranda writes in her diary about these consequences. She and her family are held by inertia, barely getting by on subsistence rations from the government. When her father shows up with his new wife and child and three other people, melding the two disparate groups, it stretches the food supply and exposes the survivor's mentality in them all. When another disaster strikes, Miranda is forced to make a desperate, life changing decision. While Emily Bauer doesn't differentiate much between character voices, she does a fine job of riding the edge of Miranda's emotions, clearly voicing her pessimism, excitement, heartbreak, and fear. Fans of dystopian novels will find plenty to enjoy here.—Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, Oxford, MI