The Rest of Us Just Live Here
Written by Patrick Ness

Publisher’s Summary:
A new YA novel from novelist Patrick Ness, author of the Carnegie Medal- and Kate Greenaway Medal-winning A Monster Calls and the critically acclaimed Chaos Walking trilogy, The Rest of Us Just Live Here is a bold and irreverent novel that powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable.

What if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.

Primary Source Pairing:
Primary source pairing, in which the reader is invited to study an infographic of what people said anxiety feels like, which is part of a larger infographic about anxiety and mental health. Readers are asked to compare the text on the infographic with text evidence from the book of how our main character Philip feels during the story and how he copes with his anxiety.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice first?
• Find something small but interesting.
• What do you notice that you didn’t expect?
• What can you learn from examining this?
• How does the information in this infographic connect to how Philip feels during the story?
• What would you add based on your experiences?
• What questions do you have when studying this image?

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
Infographic (part of larger infographic): MHA: Mental Health America