This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer

this world we live in Book 3 of the Last Survivors series begins one year since a meteor hit the moon knocking it closer to the Earth causing tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other severe weather changes.  Miranda Evans and her family has survived in Pennsylvania but food is scarce and the weather is freezing.  Ash from the volcanic eruptions has blocked out the sun.  Life for the Evans family has changed.  They forage for food from the houses around them.  Her two brothers travel for two days on bikes to fish in the river.  Miranda’s mother tries to keep things stable and normal by keeping up everyday rountines, but they are struggling to survive.  Then Miranda’s father and step-mother arrive with four others including their newborn son, Gabriel.  Now there are more mouths to feed.  Alex Morales (from The Dead and the Gone) is one of the new additions to their family.  Miranda finds herself attracted to Alex.  Read Miranda’s diary to find out how they all survive and what develops between Alex and Miranda.

Walking up a Rainbow by Theodore Taylor

walking up a rainbowIn order to save her family home after her parents’ death in an accident, Susan Carlisle hires a sheep drover and his team to drive her father’s sheep herd overland from Iowa to California in 1851. Fourteen-year-old Susan and her guardian Mrs. Dessery have a deadline to pay off Dr. Carlisle’s debt to Mr. G. B. Minzter to keep Minzter from taking over Susan’s home and land. Minzter is determined to sabotage the sheep drive from Kanesville to Sacramento City,  but Bert Pettit, skilled mountain man and sheep drover, is not about to let Minzter cut into his profits. Along the trail, Susan develops a crush on Texas cowboy, Clay Carmer who is working off a gambling debt he owes Pettit by driving the sheep to Sacramento City.  Follow Susan and the drovers as they drive two thousand sheep overland to the gold fields of California.