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Note:  If you read both Life as We Knew It and the dead & the gone for the MMS Summer Reading Challenge, you will need to complete both STEAM activities for credit.

1. Time to Look Up:  learn more about asteroids.
· What is an asteroid?

· What are the 3 broad composition classes of asteroids?

· Name and describe the 3 asteroid classifications.

· Who discovered the first and largest asteroid?  What is its name?

Reliable reference source: NASA Science-Solar System Exploration: Small Bodies  https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/

2. The Sky Is Falling: Select, research and create a natural disaster survival guide that would help teens like Alex survive under circumstances similar to those in the novel. What would you need  to sustain yourself and your family for an extended period of time include an emergency kit checklist with supplies and communication plan?

Reliable reference source: CDC: Natural Disasters and Severe Weather

https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/index.html

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1. What role does religious faith play in the Morales family?  How does their faith sustain them through their hardships?

2. Why does Alex pray after he leaves Yankee Stadium? What does he not want to acknowledge? (p.65)

3. Where does Alex send Bri? Do you think it was the right decision?  What is Julie’s reaction?

4. What natural disasters are happening in the western part of the country to make things worse in New York?

5. How does Alex feel about going “body shopping” with Kevin?  Would you do the same under similar circumstances?

6. Kevin and Alex talk about what they miss most (p.240). Under similar circumstances, what would you miss most? What would you do to try to compensate for and cope with what you missed?

7. When the first big snow comes, Alex starts to doubt the wisdom of every decision he has made (pp.246-247). Do you agree with him that all of his decisions were mistakes?  What decisions would you have made differently from Alex?

8. What words of comfort does Sister Rita offer to Alex about Bri?

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Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event--an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. When Alex's parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland, and food and aid dwindle.
With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.

If you found out today that, due to a catastrophic event, the life you are familiar with will change dramatically, what is the first thing you would do?

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Read the dead & the gone, answer the Discussion Questions using complete sentences, do 1 STEAM activity per book, and submit to your ELA Teacher the first week of school to earn 30 PBIS tickets and  30 minutes of recess.   If you read a second selection and complete activities for both, you will earn tickets and extra recess plus lunch away from school on a designated day.

Additional Incentive:  Students who complete the Summer Reading Challenge will be entered to win a gift certificate for 4 from Blue Heron Whitewater, French Broad Adventures, or  Sandy Bottom Trail Rides.  Special thanks to our generous sponsors.

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Susan Beth Pfeffer was born in New York City in 1948. She grew up in the city and its nearby suburbs and spent summers in the Catskill Mountains. When she was six her father wrote and published a book on constitutional law, and Pfeffer decided that she, too, wanted to be a writer. That year she wrote her first story, about the love

between an Oreo cookie and a pair of scissors. However, it wasn't until 1970 that her first book, Just Morgan, was published. She wrote it during her last semester at New York University; since then, she has been a full-time writer for young people.

She has won numerous awards and citations for her work, which range from picture books to middle-grade and young-adult novels, and include both contemporary and historical fiction.

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Summer Reading Challenge