Is the End Near?

Now that winter has settled in heat s hard to preserve. Matt, Miranda’s brother, has to learn to ski in case they have to travel across the town, and Miranda has to keep the sun room’s roof without snow so that it doesn’t fall. Mother is recuperating slowly which is still better than not at all. They still haven’t heard from dad.

Water has now run out and they have to turn off their oil furnace and have to use the snow as a water source. Food is also running out which is why the whole family has to ration the food every time more and more in order to survive. Because Jonny is the youngest sibling, they are all trying to make him live the longest and Miranda has to skip meals so that Jonny eats more. Soon Matt also skips meals to help his brother. Even though these are hard times, Miranda is glad that her family is well fed and has survived to this crisis.

Soon it is Christmas and the family is happier than ever. They are eating more food; they have recycled presents and have decorated the whole house. The celebration of this year was an unforgettable one.

But shortly mom, Matt and Jonny get sick with the flu. They are all ill, so Miranda decides to run to the hospital for help. When she arrives she notices that everyone in there is sick and dying (if they aren’t already dead). She sees that Peter, her mother’s boyfriend, is dead. That is when Miranda realizes that there will be no help this time and that she will have to save her family. In the end she does, she cures them all and even though she had to give them three meals a day, they were all much better. Because of the scarcity of food, Miranda decides to go to town and explore to see if there was any food available. Which there is! There is a man that is giving out food and promises to bring her family food every week.

Miranda’s family has survived trough a terrible crisis. But thanks to her, mom, Matt and really every member in the family, they are all alive and together.

Because of this book, I recognized that being under deplorable circumstances, brings humans closer and makes people feel empathy towards each other more than what we are used to every day. This can be shown in the book when Miranda says:

“Right now I’m reading the American Revolution.

The soldiers had a tough time of it at Valley Forge.

My heart bleeds for them” (Pfeffer 276).

This quote shows how felling connections with others who have suffered, or just experienced the same things that you have, make people reach for comfort and feel better when they are exposed to bad conditions or are facing a bad situation. I think that this is a great way to grow as a person because you are learning that there are other people out there feeling the same way as you are and that you are not alone in life. 

In the end, this book made me realize the importance of the small stuff of life. That in the end, is what makes life meaningful and worth living for.

“But today, when I am 17 and warm and well fed, I’m keeping this journal for myself so I can always remember life as we knew it, life as we know it, for a time when I’m no longer in the sunroom” (Pfeffer 337).

Just like Miranda said in the passage above, we have to live in the now, for us, for our family. It doesn’t matter if you live for a diary or for a person, you should live doing what makes you happy. Everyone deserves a life and can use it for whatever they want as long as what you do makes you happy. 

In the end, this was a book that truly has a lesson for everyone to learn. We should all live life and not be afraid to risk it. We should also try to appreciate the little that life has to offer and be grateful for every day we have in this world.   

Saying Goodbye

July is about to end and Miranda finally sees her friend Sammi. She is about to leave town in search of a better life. Everyone knows that leaving town is the best thing to do in this case, but still, Miranda’s family stays. On the other hand, Miranda’s dad and her wife, Lisa, stay in the house for a few days, when they left everyone knew that they will never see each other again; they didn’t know who will survive and who will not. Miranda feels insecure and does not know what the future holds for her and the ones she loves the most.

Cold weather has started to be more present and that means that it is time for school. Again. Because many families have moved out or are sick, there is a lack of students and teachers this year. Miranda is afraid to go to the only high school open but it is the only thing left so she decides to go there. But within a few months the school was closed so she ended up in homeschool.

The town became an insecure place. This is because now there is no police or fireman or anything, just the few people who go out occasionally just to buy things like gas or food. Everyone is on their own.

Life is more boring, there is no electricity or things to do, just Miranda and her thoughts. No one has a purpose for anything or the motivation to accomplish something in life. Miranda starts to feel insecure and alone until she hears from her dad. He had wrote two letters for the family.

Miranda finds a new motivation in life because now she has to be strong for the whole family because her mother had an accident and is in the hospital. She has a sprained ankle, making her weak and incapable of being the support of the family. The good thing about this situation was that because of Peter she got the medical attention she needed and was able to return home safely. 

Natural resources in the Earth have started to disappear, things such as gas or fruits are no longer available. The library has also closed, leaving just the post office and the hospital open. Temperatures have also dropped dramatically forcing Miranda’s family to move downstairs in order to preserve heat.

Megan, one of Miranda’s closest friends, died. This really made Miranda think about the effect of the moon in the world. Everyone was dying and now her friend was one of the victims.

Miranda’s mom hurt her ankle, again. This means that Miranda had to be what holed the family together in such hard times. Mrs. Nesbit, a close member of the family was also seek and had to be well taken care of until she died. Mrs. Nesbit had always been stubborn lady but even in her last moments on Earth she seemed happy, but that is just how life is and the whole family had to adapt to it.

This picture represents how the future is such as
mystery. 

This few chapters have been really eye opening in terms of how fragile life is and how your future can change in just a matter of seconds. This can be shown in the following text when Miranda says:

“I wonder if they imagined the future. I bet they never could have guessed what things would be like today” (Pfeffer 213).

This small section of the book shows how everything we do has an effect in our future. You can call it faith or destiny, but in the end your actions have a big value in the rest of your life. Furthermore, this quote made me realize that life as we know it now may not be the life that we will have in the future. 

As I have said before, this book has taught me the value of appreciating life and what we have right now. One character that throughout the whole book taught me this lesson was Mrs. Nesbit.

“But I hope when I get closer to death, however old I might be, that I can face it with courage and good sense the way Mrs. Nesbit does. I hope that’s a lesson I’ve truly learned” (Pfeffer 234).

The quote above showed me that even in the scariest moment of life you have to face your problems with courage and with your head up. Just like Miranda remembered Mrs. Nesbit I think that it is important to be remembered as someone who will not give up or as someone courageous and happy. I believe that these are two of the most important qualities and I would like to have them. 

A "Normal" Life

This is how I imagine Miranda's world. 

The situation is the Earth is getting worst every time. There is no more real food, just the ones that come in cans or are dehydrated and no electricity, just at certain times of the day. Mosquitos have started to infest the whole world creating incurable diseases that have been more difficult to cure due to the lack of medicine in the planet and number of doctors available. But this hasn’t changed Miranda, because now, she is in love with Dan. He was a friend of Miranda way before the moon situation; they knew each other from swimming team, both of them where great swimmers and enjoyed the sport. Dan soon became a distraction from the terrible situation on Earth, and now he is one of the most important being in Miranda’s life. Another person who made the house feel safer and welcoming was Miranda’s mother boyfriend, Peter. He was a doctor and had easy access to medicine; this was a benefit for the whole family.

Even though Miranda is feeling safer, it doesn’t mean that the world is better. Volcanic eruptions and huge tsunamis have started to damage the Earth. The sky is no longer blue, it’s gray. This is just as small example of how the world is tearing apart and destroying everything with it.

Temperatures have also risen and started a whole new set of chaos. One of them will be the unpredictable thunderstones or hurricanes that slowly make their way into creating a terrible place to live in that people call The Earth.

Miranda’s world is also tearing apart when Dan, her former boyfriend, leaves town, saying goodbye and not knowing if they will ever meet again. 

So far, this book has taught me the importance of appreciating the life I have. This includes family, health, safety and food. While reading I have realized that everyone should be grateful of the life that everyone is given, whether you like or not. This can be shown when Miranda says:

“I wonder if I’ll ever have to decide which is worse, life as we’re living or no life at all” (Pfeffer 119).

When I read this quote I thought about how so many people think that their life is not great or that it doesn’t have any meaning. This quote made me realize that living under bad circumstances is better than not living at all. I think that the right to live by itself is a gift that should not be wasted because once you lose it you can never get it back.

Another lesson that this book has made me keep in mind, is how fast we, humans, can change our minds and not appreciate what we have in the beginning. This is shown in the quote were Miranda states:

“Just yesterday, I’d been wishing thing would cool off, and now that they have, I miss heat so much.” (Pferrer 125).

After reading this, I realized that we don’t appreciate what we have every day. We all think about how things are better or worse for anybody else instead of just focusing in us. We all are so caught up in the idea of being grateful, but do we really mean it? The problem with our society is that we don’t value the things we have in the present. That is why in the future we are so angry, sad and ungrateful. We should all learn to appreciate the small thing in OUR life and no others because that way we will all realize that what we have right now is great.  

Until now, I have really enjoyed this book and I think that all of the lessons and themes that it contains are applicable to one’s daily life, this is why I think that this book is so interesting and great. 

A New Life

Life As We Knew It

By: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Miranda is a young girl who has a very normal life. Even though she is not so popular, she has friends and a loving family but her whole life is about to change when a meteorite hits the moon making it come closer to the Earth.

After the big collusion, there were no big effects but after a few weeks there was a lack of food and resources. 

Miranda went to school every day, things hadn't changed that much, she still had to give exams and test; she had to turn in assignments and work. But she was worried all the time, she couldn't think about anything but the moon.

School was coming to an end; they wouldn't have final exams because the school board wanted it to end before. The last day of school, and the beginning of summer, the only food left the school had was peanut butter and jelly, not bread, not anything else. Just peanut butter and jelly.

Miranda felt hungrier as days passed but she couldn't complain because compared to what other kids had to eat, she was eating a normal amount.

Until now this has been a very interesting book. I not only fount the topic to be really interesting, but the whole story and how it makes you question life and its meaning.

“I begged for God’s forgiveness,” she said. “And if I were you, Miranda, I’d ask for divine forgiveness, also”. “God doesn’t want you to starve to death,” she said. “Honestly, Miranda, you’re making an awfully big deal over half a sandwich” (Pfeffer, 65).

This is how I pictured Miranda and
 Megan while they fought about God's ideas... 

While I was reading this, I thought about how Miranda and Megan fought about what God’s ideas are a connected to my past knowledge because I have seen and heard, in news, that religion is one of the most sensitive topics to talk about and that, just like Miranda, you can get in a lot of trouble for giving your opinion on it. I have seen lots of relationships end up because of disagreements on religious ideas and customs that not everyone agrees on, or follows. One of them is God’s ideology such as helping others but still carrying about yourself, just like in the book. I believe that as long we treat each other’s ideas, religion, or any other topic, should influence on relationships. 

Another thing that I was thinking about while reading this few chapters, was that our nature makes us rely on company in order to feel safe. I couldn’t help to think about how we depend on others to stay calm under difficult circumstances.

“Things seem much better now that Matt is home. He’s been throwing batting practice to Jonny (I’ve been catching) and that seems to make Jonny happy” (Pfeffer, 55).

What I found curious about this quote was that we all have done that when, in order to feel safe we have to be near someone that is always happy and makes us feel like if we were under control and relaxed. I think that, that is the best feeling and that those types of people are a big part in life. 

Overall, this seems like a really interesting book and I really look forward to keep on reading. Until now, this book has made me realize that we have to appreciate our time in t earth because who knows, maybe tomorrow it will end or it will drastically change making our lives have a total new meaning. 

Answers

Now that Madison and Ethan are locked up in cages no one can help them scape. Mrs. Skelling continued to talk to herself and was harming Courtney with the dog collars. And just when they all thought it was over, a sound came out of the front door. Mrs. Skelling had brought a new victim Tyler. Madison was really sad because she didn’t want her friends to be harmed.

This to me represent how they all must have felt after
Mrs. Skelling was captured.

Tyler was locked in the cage besides Madison and he had a plan to escape that horrible place. He told her that she had to be the one to free them all but to do that she had to get out of the cage.

Tyler started to kick Maddison’s cage until it got open but the loud noise made Mrs. Skelling torture him with the electric shocks that the collars made. He was really weak and couldn’t go on anymore but even in pain he cheered for Madison. When she finally found Mrs. Skelling she told her to stop killing and harming people. But she wouldn’t listen because she ended up electrocuting Adam and killing him.

Madison was able to reach for a phone and call 911. They came in a few minutes and were able to rescue Courtney, Ethan, Tyler and Madison. They were all very happy to be alive but still sad because of Lucy and Adam.  

In the end, this book became more meaningful to me. I found it really interesting because most of the things that this book said could be applied to real life and that is what it is all about, to learn.

“Please continue trying to work this out. If you do it hard enough it will work”

(Strasser 207).

What I found interesting about this quote was that it makes you think that you can accomplish your goals if you just try hard enough and don’t let anyone let drag you down. What I also learned about this quote is that there are people out there that will always give you the courage to continue and to give you best. 

Towards the end of the book there were many important quotes that made me reflect about life and how important it is to gain memories that represent who we are and who we are not.

“They wanted me to stay closer, but I had to get away… from the memories”

(Strasser 236).

This is a quote that made me think about how important it is to stay true to who you are and not let bad memories ruin your day. I found this quote to explain how important it is to treasure you happy memories in order to be yourself. Not letting anyone else tell you what to do or what not to do if it is going to make you feel bad about yourself. 

This book has been full of surprises since the very beginning. I have always found myself wanting to read more and more. I’m kind of sad that it end but I enjoyed reading it a lot. This book taught me the importance of being honest and not trusting in everyone you know even though we should not trust on the looks but in the personality and character of a person. Overall, this has been a great book and I will definitely recommended to anyone who likes mysteries as much as I do. 

Lost and Found

Now the situation got worst because Lucy’s dead body was found. Cold, in the middle of school. Everyone panicked because no one knew what was going on or who dropped her body. Madison started to freak out more and more because she felt responsible for this situation. Maura began to have more problems with the school and was constantly under supervision because now that people had seen her blog they started to wonder if she had been Lucy’s murderer.

That is how I pictured Adam and Courtney
when they were trappedby Mrs. Skelling.

One night, Madison was alone at home when suddenly she heard a noise. It was a men that told her he was the one that had left her clues about where Lucy, Adam and Courtney were but she never got them. Madison didn’t knew if she had to trust him but she left the house with him that night.

Ethan led Madison to the responsible for the disappearance of Adam and Courtney. It was Mrs. Skelling, the principal of the school. She was acting crazy and looked disturbed. She was talking to herself and had dog collars all over the place and inside two cages, Courtney and Adam lied down. They looked sick and were almost dead. Ethan and Madison decided to rescue them but they ended up in the cages themselves with no way out.

The last few chapters have been the most exciting ones and the ones with the most inspiring quotes. Most of them represent parts in life where we just have to trust others because they might have the answers to what we may need.

"Why do we believe one stranger and not another" (Strasser 162).

What I found interesting about this quote is that really often we decide in which stranger to trust. This is because we judge based on appearances and not on what is inside. I think that the reason why we decide to trust some people is because of their appearances which most of the time is not right about people. I think that we should all try to work our way to stop judging people by their looks, but for their personality. 

Overall, this book has really made me think about trust and how to know when someone can be trusted. Especially when there is someone in danger or if it is a serious situation that needs people who have the correct morals and values such as honesty.

“Sometimes you know when someone is telling the truth” (Strasser 182).

 I found this quote to fully describe my opinion about trust. I think that everyone is capable of telling the truth and when they do, you just know. I firmly believe that everyone should always tell the truth because that way you become a better person and people know that you can be trusted plus, it is an easy way to earn someone’s respect. 

The last few chapters have been the most exciting ones until now. The whole book has been leading up to this situation and that has been an important factor for me to keep on reading. I think that the unexpected plot turns are what has made this book even more interesting. I look forward to keep on reading because I have really enjoyed it until now. I wish that in the future there will be more answers as to why, did Mrs. Skelling did what she did to her students. 

Unmasked

Since Adam’s disappearance everything got worst new theories were created saying that Adam and Lucy had planned to run away but it wasn’t that. Everyone who Str-S-d wished to die, disappvared leaving no trace and eventually becoming missing for many days. Str-S-d now had a new request and this time it was Courtney’s turn.

A normal day, after Madison visited Courtney in the cafeteria she went to the stable to ride her horse Val. But before she could start, a rumbling noise was stalking Madison. Growing bigger and bigger until she end up being locked up in the stable. Luckily, the veterinarian hadn’t left and helped Madison get out of the stable of the angry horses. He called Madison’s dad who picked her up that night. When they arrived home, Madison’s mom was crying and was worried that she would the next girl to be kidnapped that’s why they called the detectives to investigate about who had been in the stable that night but there were no clues.

This picture represents how Maura must
have felt when more people knew about her blog.
Now she was vulnerable and dint had her blogger
mask anymore. 

One day, Madison arrived to her school but it was a little different this time because many vans of local news were installed outside of her school making her and her mother worried about the kidnaping situation. When she was finally able to trespass the news people, everyone was called to the auditorium for some assembly about the missing teens. Maura, who was actually Str-S-d, became more and more nervous because she thought that people will start blaming her for what had happened to Lucy and Adam, but no one did.

Now it was Courtney’s turn to disappear which eventually came true because one day she disappeared just like Lucy and Adam. Leaving her father, sister and Madison heartbroken because they had lost a daughter and a sister. 

I think that Strasser’s way of writing is a unique one because he is able to turn the situation creating more and more suspense. While I was reading I assumed that Str-S-d was the one who had Lucy and Adam but one blog post of her changed my mind, this one said:

“Something weird is going on. I wished Lucy would die, and r-then she disappeared. Then I wished Adam would die and I just heard he disappeared. It has to be a coincidence, right?” (Strasser 121).

After reading this I could believe that no one, not even the reader knows what happens to the missing characters in the book. There were so many plot turns in this book that made me realize that this is what makes a book interesting because the unexpected turns are what keeps the reader engaged to the story. 

This book has been really interesting since the beginning. There are any situations that makes one aware of the differences many of the characters in the book have, just like Madison and Courtney.

“Did you hear what happened?’ Courtney asked while I sat down. ‘A bunch of kids went to the office. Like, they all say they saw or talked to this guy? And it was always the same thing?’ I stared at her with my eyes wide open “So what?” (Strasser 130).

The quote above shows how opposites attract each other, even in friendships. This is because Courtney is a girl who likes to gossip and talk about other people while Madison likes to say away from them. I think that this type of situations are what makes a friendship interesting.

 This has been a book full of surprises and this few chapters haven’t been the exception. I look forward to continue reading this book because until now it has been a great book. I predict that in the future Madison will figure out that not all people should be trusted and will also learn to value more the people who have always cared about her because who knows, they might disappear too.

Still Missing

Four days had passed since Lucy disappeared and still there were no hints about where she was. The police had comes up with many possibilities including a kidnap. Madison's mother became more and more worried about her daughters safeness and made her skip a few days of school.Because of this Madison had plenty of time to write to her best friend Courtney but she got the feeling that she was no longer her friend because Courtney kept ignoring her so she decided to follow her after school and discovered that Courtney was acting really weird around her.

I bealive this is how Str-S-d felt when Lucy was around
and maybe that is why  its is good not having her
 around anymore. 

Meanwhile, Str-S-d constantly updated its blog. Every time a new post appeared Str-S-d talked about how good things were now that Lucy was gone. Some days went by and there was still no trace of Lucy but there was a new blog post this time wishing that Adam would disappear.

The night had already arrived and The Safe Rides Crew received a call telling them to pick up Adam who was drunk and needed help to get back home but before they got to the stop were they had to pick him up no one was there making him disappear for days, just like Lucy. 

Tormenting someone is wrong under any circumstance that is why the following quote caught my eye while I was reading.

“Repent all you want, my dear. We’re sorry, but it won’t bring you salvation.” (Strasser 66).

While I was reading this I kept thinking to myself that our society is so damaged that it is capable to destroy someone’s life without caring about their feelings. I realized that maybe this is a metaphor that the author used to tell the reader about how bad we need a change. This section in the book made me comprehend Lucy because I realized that maybe repenting is not enough in this life, maybe one needs to avoid doing bad stuff to others in order to elude the situation she is currently in.  

So far in this book there have been many situations that I could relate to including the following in which Madison realizes that she doesn’t have to be the one always apologizing.

“Courtney was online, and I was tempted to try and smooth things over with her, but for once I resisted. Why did I always have to be the one who tried to make things better? (Strasser 73).

After reading this I was able to feel empathy towards Madison because I have been in the position where I have to make things better with a friend and after that I end up doing multiple times. I think that after being the one to apologize so many times it becomes a hard and uncomfortable situation that makes you tired and eventually hope that the other person make things better. 

I think the situation of Lucy and Adam is becoming really delicate and maybe whoever has them is planning to do something terrible to them. I can predict that in the future Str-S-d will realize that wishing for someone to disappear is a really delicate situation because it could eventually come true causing a lot of damage in a person’s life. 

The Beginning

Wish you Were Dead

By: Todd Strasser

Wishing can be a complicated situation, especially if what you wish for is to make someone disappear. In the book Wish you were Dead, we can see how the lack of attention in a teen’s world can affect tremendously in their life and their perception towards the rest of people.

This is how I pictured Str-S-d on the
 outside, lonely. 

It all started with one simple blog. Str-S-d begun its first entry. This one explained how hurtful it was to be treated like if you weren’t important, or worst, like you didn’t fit in. by cruel kids at school, the worst of them was Lucy Cunningham, a cruel girl who didn’t cared much about people’s feelings, just herself. All of the loneliness the writer of these blogs had in the inside and start to believe that maybe Lucy and the rest of school was right about not being important and creating hate in the bloggers inside. 

After many more blog posts, Str-S-d started to wish Lucy to disappear which eventually came true. One night, after a party, Lucy solicited the service of Safe Rides. Tyler and Madison were the crew on duty and had to drop off Lucy at her house and wait till she went inside. But they were both tired so decided to leave and that is when someone drugged Lucy and took her away, leaving her missing for several weeks. No one knew where she was. Family members and close friends of her where left with sadness except for one person. Str-S-d was really glad that Lucy had disappeared because now there was no one to bother the writer behind Str-S-d.

While I was reading this book, a quote caught my attention because several of the values that we are all taught like honesty and forgiveness were denied because of grudges towards another person.

“Oh, Lucy, we really don’t think you should have said that. No, no, it’s too late to say you’re sorry” (Strasser 27).

After I read this I didn’t knew how to react towards it because it went against most of my values and morals. But after a while of thinking what it meant I realize that maybe sometimes when people do really bad stuff affecting others it could create a lot of damage and hate treat towards a specific individual and maybe, just maybe that is why whoever has Lucy treats her so badly and does not accept her saying sorry. 

Along my reading journey I found many interesting quotes but I chose the following one because it seemed to me that it reflected one of the most frequent question that one has in life, why.

“Why pick on me? I wondered. There were other girls who were prettier and more popular (at least they cared about popularity more than I did)” (Strasser 53-54).

This quote represents the many questions that we all ask and never get the answer to. I believe that every time we ask this question of why us, we know we won’t get the answer but it is one of many situations that we would just have to adapt to in order to keep on going with our life’s. 

Remembering one's values is the easy part of life, but putting them in practice is what creates depth in it. I believe that in the future, Str-S-d will realize this and will let Lucy go because deep down everyone knows what is right and what is wrong. I can predict that this could be a potential message in the story creating a significant idea of moral in the readers mind.