Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
It's the End of the World as I Know It
Matthew Landis · 2019
83/100
👍 Worth It
Matthew Landis pulls off something genuinely hard — a middle-grade novel about grief and anxiety that is also laugh-out-loud funny without either element undermining the other. Derrick's doomsday-shelter obsession is a perfect metaphor for the way kids try to control what terrifies them, and Misty's bucket-list counter-energy gives the book its heart. A starred School Library Journal review and Junior Library Guild selection confirm what the premise already suggests: this one earns its place.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
📚 Buy the book ↗📱 Read on Kindle ↗🎧 Listen on Audible ↗ affiliate links · support the site, never the verdict
As an Amazon Associate and Audible affiliate, Penny earns from qualifying purchases. This never affects the verdict — see our affiliate disclosure.
Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety82
substance84
craft85
originality82
accuracy88
hype80
age-fit82
human-eye84
Penny’s verdict83
Cross-pollinate