The Books: The Hunger Games

The Book: The Hunger Games

The Author: Suzanne Collins http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/ Suzanne Collins has written for children's television, and is the author of The Underland Chronicles, a five-part series that includes Gregor the Overlander and explores some of the same themes as The Hunger Games in an urban-fanstasy setting. The Hunger Games is the first of a trilogy, book two, Catching Fire was released in 2009 and the final book, Mockingjay will be published on 8/24/10.

What It's About: In Panem, a nation that was once North America, citizens are kept in their place through a yearly death match between two children from each district. When Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place in the Hunger Games, she sets in motion

Why I Picked It: It's super-popular, really thought-provoking and with Mockingjay coming out in August, what better time! Plus it and Uglies are similar in many ways and since Uglies was a surprise hit in last year's Book Slam, so I thought it would be a good read for players who hadn't read it before.

What I Thought of It: I will admit that when I first started hearing all the buzz about The Hunger Games on the different librarian mailing lists and forums, I was unimpressed (okay, I thought the same thing when it happened with Harry Potter and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and I was wrong here and then, too. At least you can never accuse me of being a band-wagon-jumper-on-er!). But I did finally read it and I liked it a lot. It's so powerful and exciting, with issues that really make the reader think.

The Question I Leave You With: If you were Katniss, would you have taken Prim's place?