This Is How It Always Is Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, The Bathroom Bills and our BookBrowse Review of This Is How It Always Is.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. How do the epigraphs help prepare the reader for the many crossroads the Walsh- Adams family will have to face? What about the first word of the novel, "but"?
2. When Rosie and Penn first go to see Mr. Tongo about Claude, he asks them to divide behaviors into "boy" and "girl" columns. Do you think their conclusions are accurate? Are they fair? Discuss what you think it means to be a man, a woman, or "something else."
3. In what ways does the book tackle typical definitions of boys and girls, men and women? Did it change your view of gender and identity as you read?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Flatiron Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.