How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff is narrated by Daisy, an anorexic teenager sent to England to live with cousins for a bit, leaving her father and evil stepmother in New York City, looking forward to the birth of their child. When war breaks out in England, Daisy and her cousins, Osbert, Edmond, Piper and Isaac are left home alone since Aunt Penn went off traveling. Soldiers take over their country home as a military headquarters and the kids (and dogs) are shipped elsewhere. Think about all the war stories you’ve heard about families that are separated during war time. They go hungry, they walk at night to search for each other, they witness atrocities beyond description. That is what this story is about and it is very powerful because it is contemporary and tangible. It could be happening to us, and may happen to us. Daisy’s voice is a teenager’s voice, it is jumpy and run on at times, but she sounds like the teenagers that I talk to at work. Seeing war through her eyes is a powerful thing.

~posted by Alli