Life As I Knew It

by Randi Hacker

Sixteen-year-old Angelina Rossini lives a fairly normal life in her small Vermont town until the day that her father dies, and then everything in her life changes.

Genres: Young Adult

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Randi Hacker is the Education Outreach Coordinator at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, a job that is a synthesis of many of the other career tracks she has followed in her life: educator, editor, author, student of Chinese. Randi earned her BA in English Literature from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and spent the better part of her thirties working as the editor of The Electric Company Magazine published by Children's Television Workshop.

Before completing an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont, she dropped out of quite a number of well-respected graduate schools including the University of Michigan, UCLA and Columbia University in New York City.

In addition to her duties as Outreach Coordinator, Randi is the mother of a 12-year-old daughter adopted from China. Her Vermont-based sitcom "Windy Acres" was broadcast on Vermont Public Television and won a Boston/New England Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Program. Her young adult novel, Life as I Knew It (Simon & Schuster, 2006) was chosen as one of the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age 2007. She is currently at work on her second YA novel.

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life As I Knew It is a wonderful story that brought me both laughter and tears. I was able to identify with multiple parts of the book. It is well written and Randi chose beautiful words wisely. I look forward to reading more from this author. I highly suggest Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt if you enjoyed this read.

[Josselyn Castillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Olga · Rating 3 out of 5]

What do you do when you break your ankle? Well, you knitt, you read, and then you read and you knitt some more. So, that is what I have been doing now that I can't got anywhere. Anyway, I read this book that my husband bought for me. I was curious because the author is from Lawrence and because I never read YA fiction, so I told myself why not. I found the story very compelling and the characters interesting. It sounded so real to me. That kind of thing that we all can go through with our parents. I fell in love with the father and believe it or not the teenage daughter was quite unselfish. The love she felt for her father showed in every page. Anyway, this was a nice little story.

[Rochelle]

very good book loves it