Bibliography
Rosoff, Meg. 2004. How I Live Now. New York, NY. Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN 038590908X.
Plot Summary
As war looms around the world, 15-year-old New Yorker Daisy is sent to spend the summer with family she has never met in the English countryside. Sent away for a variety of reasons, Daisy quickly falls into the pattern of farm life amongst her dead mother’s family. When her aunt travels to Norway to help with the “Peace Process,” the cousins expect to enjoy a short time with only 16-year-old Osbert in charge. Life changes quickly and permanently though, when “The Enemy” attacks London, severing it from the outside world. Soon “The Enemy” has occupied England, but Daisy and her cousins “didn’t really care.” They continue to live a quiet life on the farm, enjoying their freedom. When the British Army sequesters the family home for quarters, the children are separated and sent to other families. As events escalate, Daisy and nine-year-old Piper work to return home, hoping to find Osbert, Isaac, and Daisy’s love Edmond on the way. What they do find are the horrors of war and an empty farm. Suddenly, Daisy finds herself back in New York longing for her life on the farm.
Critical Analysis
Rosoff voices Daisy in a way only a teenaged girl can speak – quickly and with infrequent punctuation. While the voice rings true, the lack of properly punctuated dialogue quickly becomes annoying, and occasionally confusing. Still, the story is engaging and the action moves at a quick pace. Daisy wastes no time in becoming romantically involved with her cousin Edmond. While the romance, and Edmond’s apparent mind-reading abilities, does provide an interesting twist, the incestuous nature of the relationship is troubling. Also troubling is Daisy’s struggle with anorexia, made even more so by Daisy’s admission that she starves herself not just to be thin, but to manipulate those around her. While the plot does keep the reader involved and Rosoff’s descriptions of the atrocities of war are frighteningly accurate, the incestuous relationship does not outweigh the writing skill.
Awards and Reviews
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2004
Michael L. Printz Award 2004
From Publisher’s Weekly: Teens may feel that they have experienced a war themselves as they vicariously witness Daisy's worst nightmares. Like the heroine, readers will emerge from the rubble much shaken, a little wiser and with perhaps a greater sense of humanity.
Connections
Research the experiences of people living in occupied countries and experiencing sequestration of their homes.
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