How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

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Rationale

How I Live Now follows the story of Daisy as she is shipped off to Europe to live with an extended family she barely knows.  Her and her ‘evil’ stepmother do not get along and her stepmother is expecting.  She moves in with her mother’s sister and her children.  Not long after arriving, a war begins that separates her new family.  Daisy grows up quickly as she takes on the role of care giver and protector and must find her way back, through a war-torn country, to her new family.

The two pictures represent the relative safety Daisy and her cousins found in the lambing barn on their families’ farm. At first, they use it for play but as things get more serious, they hide there. The path represents Daisy’s journey across the country to get back to her new family.  The first ‘tweet’ is my brief synopsis from the book.  It is meant to capture the attention of a possible new reader.  The quote was chosen because it expresses, not only Daisy’s voice, but also her wartime situation and the feeling of freedom and adulthood she feels as she experiences being ‘parentless’.

Related Reads

Related Read Title	Related Read Author	Category	How Related Read Relates to Initial Title	Why You Would Recommend the Related Read
The Way We Fall (The Fallen World) (Volume 1)	Megan Crewe	Science Fiction	Another story about first love, survival, with a female protagonist.	-Like the title book, it deals with family issues, death & dying, survival and is in the fantastical fiction genre. -Had positive reviews in the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Review and Booklist.
Postcards from No Man’s Land	Aidan Chambers	Realistic Fiction	Also, a book about self-discovery and wartime.	-I read this book for the last module and was surprised by the similarities in the story.  Especially, in the character Geertrui’s storyline. -Carnegie Medal winning novel -Publishers Weekly starred review
Between Shades of Gray	Ruta Sepetys	Historical Fiction	Similarities include a European setting and a young female protagonist struggling with family separation during a war.	-New York times bestseller -New York times notable book -Carnegie Medal nominee -Starred review in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and Booklist.
Lord of the Flies	William Golding	Classics	Takes place during a world war, where there is no adult supervision and a fight for survival.	-Nobel Prize winning author -Time Magazine 100 Best list -ALA most challenged books

Review

Kirkus Review: “This is a very relatable contemporary story, told in honest, raw first-person and filled with humor, love, pathos, and carnage. War, as it will, changes these young people irrevocably, not necessarily for the worse. They and readers know that no one will ever be the same. The story of Daisy and her three exceptional cousins, one of whom becomes her first lover, offers a keen perspective on human courage and resilience. An epilogue, set six years after the conclusion, while war still lingers, ends Daisy’s story on a bittersweet, hopeful note.”

References

Alohamalakhov. (2014, August 27). Country Lane Gravel Road Tuscany [Photograph found in Nature Landscapes]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/country-lane-gravel-road-tuscany-428039/

Chambers, A. (1999). Postcards from no man's land. New York, NY: Speak.

Chance, R. (2014) Young adult literature in action: A librarian’s guide. (Second Edition). Denver, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Crewe, M. (2012). The way we fall: Fallen world trilogy bk. 1. New York: Hyperion.

Free-Photos. (2014, May 3). Farm Shed Cabin Shack Countryside [Photograph found in Nature Landscapes]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/farm-shed-cabin-shack-countryside-336549/

Golding, W. (1954). Lord of the flies. NY, NY: Coward-McCann.

Kirkus Review. (2004). HOW I LIVE NOW by Meg Rosoff. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/meg-rosoff/how-i-live-now/

Rosoff, M. (2013). How I live now. London: Penguin.

Sepetys, R. (2012). Between shades of gray. Speak.