how i live now

Rosoff, Meg. how i live now. New York: Random House, 2004.







Annotation:

Angsty and anorexic Daisy, a 15-year-old NYC girl, is sent to live with her aunt and cousins in the English countryside. As her cynicism begins to succumb to the peace and love she finds amidst her quiet, accepting, "mystical being" cousins, war comes to England. She fights to survive and succeeds, but not without losing nearly everything she'd finally begun to risk caring for.

Justification for nomination:

Daisy's first-person retrospective of her harrowing journey through love and war is narrated in a powerful, original and bracingly honest teen voice. Rosoff strikes an odd balance between beautiful writing and the actual speaking style of modern American teens, mixing overlong sentences, odd capitalization, and spot-on teen attitude into a compelling first-hand tale.

The object of Daisy's first love - her cousin Edmond - will certainly put off some readers. Daisy's crossing of boundaries isn't confined to illicit love, either...the story begins with her flight over the Atlantic. Edmond picks her up in his mother's truck from the London airport - another metaphorical border push, for Edmond is 14 and definitely too young to drive. Daisy is brought out of urbanity into her cousins' simple rural existence, complete with barnyard animals, swimming holes, and fishing excursions. Their mother (Daisy's dead mother's sister) "always has Important Work To Do Related to the Peace Process" and thus is out of the country lecturing on the "Imminent Threat of War" when, in fact, War happens, beginning with terrorist-like attacks in London. Borders are sealed and the children are left to fend for themselves. Before the affects of war spread to their area, Daisy briefly experiences profound happiness (sexual and otherwise, another possible sticking point for some readers).

The bulk of Daisy's story, however, deals with the unraveling of her life and her innocence that occurs when her adult-free bubble bursts and the war drives she and her cousins from the farm, in separate groups (based on gender). Separated from Edmond and by default the sole guardian of her nine-year-old cousin, Daisy is subjected to a crash course in hard-knock life. Part survival story, part love story, Daisy's quest back to Edmond and the farm brings the frightening state of modern day international politics out of the setting and into her story very effectively. The ambiguous end to this short and deceptively easy read leaves much of the final outcome up to the reader.

Genre: Printz, Coming-of-age, "Edgy".