Life As We Knew It - Chapter 12

If you were Miranda, I'd bet you wouldn't look at chocolate chips the same way again after this chapter. The weather is really changing; 20 degrees the first week of September!

1. Do you think the reaction Miranda’s mother has when she sees Miranda eating the bag of chocolate chips is appropriate, or did she overreact? (p. 193–95) How does her mother’s reaction affect Miranda emotionally? (p. 195)
   
2. The family finally gets letters from Dad. What does he report? (p. 196-198).
   
3. What do you suppose is meant by the following line: "Sometimes it's safer to cry about people you don't know than to think about people you really love." (p. 199).

Life as We Knew Iy - Chapter 11

Chapter 11 is relatively brief and deals with Miranda having to make a final decision about her schooling for the next year.

1. What decision does Miranda end up making about school?
   


2. What are three factors that impacted that decision?
   


3. Why does Miranda feel taking the school supplies is even "better than Christmas" (p.188-189)?

Life as We Knew It - Chapter 10

This chapter features difficult decisions that need to be made about the upcoming school year as the book reaches late August. Miranda and Jonny must choose between attending either the elementary school or high school for instruction or choosing to be home schooled. On a bike run into the town, Miranda is confronted with the negative side of human nature as a gang of young men are looting the town's boarded up shops.

1. What challenges face the school district in the upcoming school year?
   


2. What is the school board's plan for keeping the school(s) open?
   


3. How are the people of Howell, PA like "prisoners?"

Life As We Knew It - Chapter 9

In this chapter, Miranda thinks a lot about her relationship with her family, Jonny's lost childhood due to the disaster and has a deep discussion about faith with Megan.

1. At the beginning of the chapter, how has the strain of the events following the asteroid attack begun to wear on Miranda's family relationship?
   


2. As a reader, what concerns do you have about Megan?
   


3. What does Miranda realize about her mom when she visits Megan for the last time? (pp. 164–65)
   


4. What does Miranda realize when she said "Its hard to believe I was ever that young. I guess Jonny will never be" (p. 166).

Life As We Knew It - Chapter 8

This chapter continued to deal with change and loss, particularly people leaving Miranda's life, at least in the short term. Dad and Lisa are moving, Dan is being sent off with his father to strike out on his own and Sammi is running off with her forty year old boyfriend.

There is an interesting contrast in this chapter. Mom is doing everything she can to keep Matt, Jonny and Miranda healthy and the family together while her friends are departing for the good of those who stay behind in Pennsylvania. Others leave with the hope things are better in the south.

1. Why does Sammi leave town with forty-year-old George? How does Miranda feel about this?



2. What is Dan's father's plan for Dan? Why do you think he is doing this?



3. How has the changing weather effected animals at the farm Jonny had to work at?



4. Jonny is the first to verbally express the idea "Are we all going to die?" How does everyone at the dinner party respond to this?



5. If you were Miranda, what options about the future might you be considering at this point?

Life As We Knew It - Chapter 7

In chapter 7, Miranda visits Megan, Jonny goes to baseball camp, and the family deals with new problems caused by the moons changing gravitational impact on the earth.

1. Describe Miranda and Megan's conversation. What are each others' perspective on religion? Do you think they can continue being friends?



2. What new natural disaster threat faces the world? Why? How will it/is it impacting Miranda's family in Pennsylvania?



3. Miranda's mother describes how the family is living post-asteroid impact as "playacting." What does she mean by that? Why?

Life As We Knew It - Chapter 6

Chapter six begins the "Summer" Season of Life as We Knew It. Miranda and her family continued to make the best out of a changing world while Miranda also tries to live the life of a normal teanager.

1. How would you describe the relationship between Miranda and Dan?
   


2. Why is Miranda's mother so angry about Miranda leaving the food line to get Dan (pp. 100-101). What suprises you the most about her reaction?
   


3. Why is it so important to Miranda's mother that Jonny go to baseball camp?
   


4. Is the tension between Miranda and her mother typical for teenagers and their parents about dating? Why or why not?