Last Kids On Earth
Written by Max Brallier, Illustrated by Douglas Holgate

Publisher’s Summary:
After a monster apocalypse hits town, average thirteen-year-old Jack Sullivan builds a team of friends to help slay the eerily intelligent monster known as Blarg.

Primary Source Pairing:
Everyone loves a good zombie story and a good hero. This book has both. Meet Jack Sullivan our resident (only resident?) zombie catcher. Through themes of survival, friendship, and heroism, Last Kids On Earth tells a story that will tug your heart right out. For this primary source pairing, invite students to study a photograph of an entrance to a zombie ride at Coney Island. Encourage students to make textual evidence with this visual image. Additionally, there is a great deal of imagery in the book. Remind students of the importance of slowly looking at these images as they are reading. Visual elements of text should be read just as closely as the text itself. Model this technique with students as you are able.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first?
• What people and objects are shown?
• How are they arranged?
• What is the physical setting?
• What’s happening in the image?
• Do you want to visit this place?
• Make a connection to what you see in this image with something you read in the book Last Kids On Earth.

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
“Scary zombie-themed entrance to an amusement arcade on the Coney Island boardwalk in New York City’s Brooklyn borough,” photograph by Carol M. Highsmith: Library of Congress