The year is 2015, and the United Kingdom is preparing to confront global warning with a major shift in policy. This is all in response to the Great Storm, which resulted from a shift in the Gulf Stream. All citizens will receive cards to track the use of carbon. Each person has a limited number of carbon points to use for the year, and the goal is to decrease all energy use by 60 %.

Readers get to share the experience through the journal of Laura, a 16-year old girl living in London. Before the rationing began, Laura lived the normal life of a British teen. She played guitar in a local band. She had a crush on Ravi, the boy next door. She fought like crazy with her older sister Kim and worried about her parents.

Laura, her family, friends, and everyone around them must adapt to the new world as rationing proves to be more challenging than everyone expected. The rest of the world watches as Britain is the first to step off on this experiment.

As the year passes, it quickly becomes clear that the Great Storm will not be the only meteorological challenge they will confront. Heavy rains, drought, and high winds all leave their mark on the city. And then there are the human challenges as unhappy residents turn to demonstrations and riots in response to the challenges of shortages in the area of power and water.

2015 is not a good year, but it is one filled with challenges and the fight to survive. It is also a year for people to also go on living as they still find themselves with the usual attempts at romance, success in business, and friendship.

The concept is definitely an interesting one. Laura reads realistically as a modern teenagers. She loves her parents and sister even as they move through spats and tough times. She also is a strong characters, which is nice to see.

This is a cutting-edge novel. Kids (and adults) are interested in the environment. It draws on a lot of concepts that were evident in the film The Day After Tomorrow, but does a much better job of presenting the realism of the issues rather than turning into an adventurous disaster tale. I do have to admit to things feeling a bit sluggish or draggy at times, but I did find it interesting. I can see a lot of those who liked Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life as We Knew it and its companion, The Dead and the Gone really enjoying this one.

I also found that the book does a great job of not tying everything up in the end. Laura and her family (as well as the whole of London) are confronted with a horrible experience, which they are recovering from at the books close. With that said, not everything has been solved. The environment is still hurting, and as Laura's friend Andrew highlights, it will take generations for the planet to recover from the harm humans have done.

This would definitely make a great book discussion group selection. Readers probably won't be able to stop from wondering what they would do if they were in Laura's shoes.