My first book for the Grapevine challenge is How I live Now by Meg Rosoff, recommended by Dewey.

Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from New York City to the English countryside to visit her aunt and cousins, whom she's never met. She immediately bonds with the family--her aunt, three boys near her age, and a little girl.

When England is attacked by an unnamed enemy, the cousins find themselves alone. With no power or systems, the farm becomes a kind of Eden, where the kids can live peacefully. Until the war arrives in their midst and rips the family apart, and everyone must survive on their own.

The story is told by Daisy's witty first person voice. She claims she has been sent away from NY because her pregnant stepmother hated her, but there are clues that she is in fact anorexic and maybe her father sent her to England for a change of air. And as a matter of fact, Daisy solves her problems with food: when the means of survival becomes so scarce, there's no reason to make yourself hungry on purpose.

The kids' relationship between themselves is uncannily strong, as is their ability to survive in a land which is becoming increasingly devastated. Nature, however, always has something magic in it--for example, spring on the farm is described as "Walt Disney on ecstasy".

Another interesting element of this book is that it depicts a war of everyone against everyone--a war declared by international terrorism, when no one really understands who is against whom, not to mention why.

I loved this book immensely. I think it might be the best book I've read so far in 2008. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Other reviews for this book:

• Dewey @ The Hidden Side of a Leaf
• Tanabata @ In Spring it is the Dawn