How I Spent My Last Night on Earth » (Reissue)

Todd Strasser has written many award-winning novels, including Boot Camp, Can't Get There from Here, Give a Boy a Gun, How I Changed My Life, and How I Created My Perfect Prom Date, which was adapted for the Fox feature film Drive Me Crazy. He decided to write If I Grow Up after visiting several inner-city schools and reading about the growing problem of gangs. Strasser frequently speaks at schools about the craft of writing and conducts writing workshops for young people. He lives in a suburb of New York City.

Allegra Hanover is Time Zone High's over-achieving valedictorian, so motorcycle-driving surfer bum Andros Bliss seems like the last person she would date. But then an asteroid is rumored to be hurtling towards Earth, and the normal high school rules start to fade.

Students and teachers are ditching class, and the lines between high school cliques are breaking down. Is the end of the world enough to make Allegra finally go for her secret crush?

VOYA

In this tragicomedy, Allegra "Legs" Hanover, a senior at Time Zone High, academic success, and general observer of people, muddles through the absurdities of life when human existence is threatened by a giant asteroid heading for Earth, due to hit the next morning. After receiving this news from gorgeous surfer-dude Andros Bliss in the student parking lot of the affluent suburban coastal high school one morning, Legs absorbs its implications over the ensuing twenty-four hours. Although she has been dating the incredibly safe Derman Bloom, once she starts pondering the three important Rules of Virginity with her best friend Angie Sunberg, and considering the finality of the end of the world, not following Andros to the beach to wait for "the big one" seems incomprehensible. Short sentences, Legs's stream-of-consciousness style, and frequent paragraph breaks move the engaging story along rapidly. Lighthearted in presentation, the narrative nonetheless tackles important issues of friendship, loyalty, right versus wrong, and--of course--consequences. Once it is available in paperback, I expect my eighth graders will form a wait-list for this book. Its presentation and humor will appeal to Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat (Harper, 1989/VOYA October 1989) fans, its intimacy will engage Anne M. Martin's California Diaries series readers, and its tame content will enable even stodgy adults to enjoy the tale. Strasser's newest title from Time Zone High is an excellent pick for reluctant readers, male or female. VOYA Codes: 3Q 4P M J S (Readable without serious defects; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12).