Jeanna Sciarrotta (Children's Literature)
When Miranda is told to write an essay on the upcoming meteor that is going to hit the moon, she has no idea just what is in store for her. As she and her family watch openmouthed, the meteor does indeed hit the moon. It hits it so hard that the moon is actually knocked closer to the Earth. This is closely followed by a slew of natural disasters, including tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Though the town struggles to maintain an air of normalcy the first couple of weeks, the death list keeps growing and the weather in Pennsylvania continues to decline. Miranda’s mother races against time to prepare the family to survive. Amidst the inevitable food and oil shortages, Miranda, her mother, and her two brothers have to make tough decisions regarding their uncertain future. This science fiction novel hits very close to home in light of recent disasters, and it leads many teens and adults to question “What if?” Told in the form of Miranda’s journal, this novel smoothly transitions from the generic coming-of-age novel into an all out survival story. Readers will engage quickly and read eagerly in order to discover whether the family, if any, will be there at the end of the novel. This novel goes far beyond the expectations of a sci-fi novel, and the reader will not be disappointed in the ending. 2006, Harcourt Children’s Books, $17.00. Ages 12 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2007)
When Miranda begins writing in her new diary, there are few surprises. She is an average teenage girl, living in an average Pennsylvania town, prone to adolescent self-absorption. But when an asteroid hits the moon, a nearly apocalyptic weather change occurs and her shift in attention is sudden and palpable. No one can predict the long-term outcome of the catastrophe. Mass hysteria is followed by the slowly dawning realization that things may not get better. Months go by and Miranda’s diary reveals the growing anxiety and fear within her family. There is scarcely power, the water supply is threatened, and meals soon need to be rationed to one or two cans of food a day. Her family survives illnesses and injuries, and the death of close friends, all the while cut off from knowledge of what is happening beyond their town. The sense of doom in this fast-paced, speculative novel is overwhelming, but so, too, is the humanity of its characters and the will to survive. CCBC Category: Fiction for Young Adults. 2006, Harcourt, 337 pages, $17.00. Age 13 and older.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 18))
Sixteen-year-old Miranda begins a daily ten-month diary documenting the survival ordeal her rural Pennsylvania family endures when a large meteor's collision with the moon brings on destruction of the modern world and all its technological conveniences. The change in the moon's gravitational pull begins to cause natural havoc around the globe in the form of catastrophic tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes and other weather-related disasters. Miranda's American teen view gradually alters as personal security, physical strength and health become priorities. Pfeffer paints a gruesome and often depressing drama as conditions become increasingly difficult and dangerous with the dwindling of public and private services. Miranda's daily litany of cutting firewood, rationing canned meals, short tempers flaring in a one-room confinement is offset by lots of heart-to-heart talks about life and its true significance with her mother, older brother and religiously devout best friend. Death is a constant threat, and Pfeffer instills despair right to the end but is cognizant to provide a ray of hope with a promising conclusion. Plausible science fiction with a frighteningly realistic reminder of recent tragedies here and abroad. 2006, Harcourt, 352p, $17.00. Category: Fiction. Ages 13 up. © 2006 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Laurren Kresge (Kutztown Book Review, Fall 2007)
Sixteen year-old Miranda witnesses a meteor’s collision with the moon. After this collision, the world as she knows it dramatically changes. Survival starts to become a realistic yet terrifying concept for the teenage girl who tells the story through her journal entries. Pfeffer has chosen an inventive way to portray “the world coming to an end” through the eyes of a sixteen year old girl. The plot line is scary as the reader begins to wonder if the events in the story could really happen. I enjoyed reading a novel in a journal entry format. I would recommend this book for middle school students. Students will enjoy a selection that twists the plot line of a typical teenager into a story about family and survival. Category: Realistic Fiction. 2006, Harcourt, $17.00. Ages 11 to 15.

April Spisak (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 2006 (Vol. 60, No. 4))
Miranda’s ordinary life is disrupted, along with the lives of literally everyone else in the world, when an unexpectedly dense meteor hits the moon. Immediately, entire countries are lost to tsunamis, quickly followed by volcanic eruptions, rampant disease, and starvation that cause the deaths of millions more. On a much smaller scale, Miranda, her two brothers, and mother are just trying to survive the winter in their own small home. The slow unfolding of events, told in diary entries that vary in length and intensity, creates a riveting and deeply frightening account of the individual experience of a worldwide catastrophe. Although Miranda writes at length about new horrors and unexpected consequences of the meteor, she is also remarkably realistic as she also journals her avoidance of homework and her meditations on kissing boys. The story is effectively constructed: the personal connection with Miranda and her conscious acceptance of the fact that few humans can mourn for tragedy every second keeps the unceasing tribulations of the larger world from becoming overwhelming to the reader. It is certainly to the author’s credit that this post-convenience, dangerous world actually sounds inviting on occasion and often raises intriguing questions: readers will inevitably imagine their own responses to such a global event and may even envy Miranda’s uncomplicated appreciation of her simpler but more joyful life. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2006, Harcourt, 337p., $17.00. Grades 6-9.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2007)
In this taut survival story, an asteroid hits the moon, knocking it closer toward Earth, which results in cataclysmic natural disasters. Sixteen-year-old Miranda's journal entries provide a riveting account of how lack of information and resources, and, subsequently, loss of hope for the future shrink her world. Against mounting dismal conditions, her family's drawing together to find meaning in their altered lives is all the more triumphant. Category: Older Fiction. 2006, Harcourt, 337pp, 17.00. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Allison Rheinhardt (The Kutztown University Book Review, Spring 2007)
After the moon is knocked off it’s axis when a meteor hits, the world is not the same for anybody. The fear is seen through the eyes of Miranda, a 16-year-old girl who lives in Northeast Pennsylvania. The news begins reporting devastating events all over the world, like tsunamis that have wiped out Alaska, Hawaii, and New York City. The electric begins to go off and on sporadically, there is a riot like atmosphere in the grocery stores. Summer passes with sweltering heat, no sun, no crops, and an overpopulation of mosquitoes. The worst is yet to come when winter hits. Miranda’s family struggles to stay warm, battle hunger pangs, and fight a virus that becomes an epidemic in the neighborhood. Miranda is wondering when the world will turn around, and become what she remembers as life as we knew it. This book is eerie and a bit horrifying in that it could actually happen. As scary as it was, it was also a really good read, reminding the readers that Mother Nature is unpredictable. This book is easily my new favorite book Category: Science Fiction.. 2006, Harcourt, $17.00. Ages 12 to 15.

Michele Winship (VOYA, October 2006 (Vol. 29, No. 4))
Mirroring recent history, this novel reminds readers of the wild power of nature that far outstrips human ability to either predict or control it. Pfeffer's science fiction holocaust story is not the predictable aftermath of a nuclear disaster across the globe, but the intimate portrayal of a slowly disintegrating family struggling to believe in a future following an asteroid's collision with the moon and the devastating after-effects on earth. With just enough science to frame the fiction, the plot is plausible and appealing to readers who may not usually explore the genre, especially middle grade females. The narrator is sixteen-year-old Miranda, who documents her life for readers through journal entries, an effective way for the author to address external as well as internal conflict. In a voice reminiscent of Anne Frank's, Miranda represents every teenage girl who will relate to her struggling to make sense of early romance, transforming friendships, and the family unrest characteristic of coming-of-age. Pfeffer's strength lies in portraying the complex relationships in a blended and extended family focused on survival, and the challenges that both draw them together and tear them apart. She also creates unlikely heroes in her secondary characters, who teach Miranda that if she reaches down deep enough, she is stronger than she ever thought she could be. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P M J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2006, Harcourt, 352p., $17. Ages 11 to 18.