Excerpt from Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Matt’s always been the one to explain things to me. Mom had her writing and Jonny, and Dad was at work (for as long as he was here), so Matt was the one I turned to. I don’t think he’s psychic and maybe it’s just because he’s three years older than me, but whenever I’ve had a question he’s seemed to know the answer.

“You don’t think anything is going to go wrong?” I asked him. “It’s not like the meteor is going to hit us. It’s just the moon.”

“I know,” he said. “But things might get a little crazy tomorrow night. Phone lines might get tied up, people calling each other. Sometimes people panic even if there’s no reason.”

“You really think people are going to panic?” I asked. “Around here, it just seems like an excuse for teachers to give us even more work.”

Matt laughed. “Teachers never need an excuse for that,” he said. “Anyway, I figured I’d find you all home tonight and it’d be a good chance for me to say hello.”

“I miss you,” I said. “I’m glad you’re coming home.”

“Me too,” he said. He paused for a moment. “Are you still keeping that journal of yours?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Good,” he said. “Be sure to write about tomorrow. You’ll probably enjoy reading all the details twenty years from now.”

“You just want me to keep a record of all your clever sayings,” I replied. “For your many biographers.”

“Well, that, too,” he said. “See you in a few days.”

When we hung up, I couldn’t figure out if I felt better because he’d called or worse. If Matt’s worried, then I’m worried.

But maybe all Matt is worried about is getting through his papers and exams.

Excerpted from Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Copyright © 2006 by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Excerpted by permission of Harcourt Trade Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.