Carolyn Haywood

http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/birthbios/brthpage/01jan/1-3haywood.html

This is a link to a short bio on Carolyn Haywood.  Her Betsy books were some of the first chapter books I read independently.  I loved them. . . especially the "old fashionedness" of them, as I called it. My favorites were Snowbound with Betsy and Betsy's Little Star.

End Times: The Prophet Emerges by Anna Schumacher

(Published in 2014 by Razorbill) 

This is a YA book I checked out as an e-book because it was available.  I ended up getting more into it than I thought I would. I will read the next book as well, because I need to know what happens.  Even though I want to know what happens next, that does not mean that I connected with the characters.  All of them, even the main character, feel rather undereveloped to me.  There is a distance. Perhaps this is purposefully done by the author. It made me, the reader, frustrated with the characters at times.  The main character is Daphne, who has had a rather rough life recently, but uses her confidence and strength to get an intense job on an oil rig at age 17.  Her teenage cousin is pregnant and expecting a baby with her not-so-great boyfriend.  Things are looking up in their lives. . . until they are not.  

I do recommend this book (series) to those who enjoy end-of-the-world and/or dystopian fiction.