Module 8 - The Hunger Games

Summary:

This is a very interesting book about a very strange place.  Prim is where Katniss lives with her family.  Her dad is dead and Katniss takes care of the family by hunting and keeping food on the table.  However, something interesting occurs in the capitol where she lives and it is known as the hunger games.  There are twelve districts and Katniss lives in the twelfth one.  Two members are selected from all of the districts to come compete in these games which are really fights to the death.  A boy and a girl are both selected and sent to the games.  There can only be one winner and Katniss realizes that her sister is one that will be chosen for that year’s event.  She chooses to go in her place.  The games were created for a good show.  However, they were also a way for the ruler to make sure that his people knew their place.  It was control.  Katniss and another boy from her district, Peeta, end up being the last two survivors of the games.  The rules end up changing back and forth to where there is more than one winner and back to only one that can win.  They did this because the supposed romantic feeling shared between Katniss and Peeta were being publicized and that just made the event more appealing.  They ended up being able to walk away as winners together. In the end they survive but only until the next adventure.


APA Reference:


Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York, NY:  Scholastic Inc.

My Impressions:

Exciting, creepy and very creative!  This book reminded me of the first story I had ever read that involved young children and a bizarre one-way ticket to death.  Stephen King wrote a story called “The Long Walk” that shared many similarities as far as the controversy involving these mandatory events that only some or one would survive.  I love stories like this.  Many people found it controversial but I found it just as fascinating as “Lord of the Flies”.  These types of books make you think, in my opinion.  They show a different sort of life than we are used to.  In our society, children are taken care of and nurtured.  In these stories, children are living adult lives while trying to deal with adult feelings that are not familiar to them yet.  They are survivors and show just as much courage and bravery as their adult counterparts. 

Professional Reviews:

Kirkus Review

Katniss Everdeen is a survivor.  She has to be; she's representing her District, number 12, in the 74th Hunger Games in the Capitol, the heart of Panem, a new land that rose from the ruins of a post-apocalyptic North America. To punish citizens for an early rebellion, the rulers require each district to provide one girl and one boy, 24 in all, to fight like gladiators in a futuristic arena. The event is broadcast like reality TV, and the winner returns with wealth for his or her district. With clear inspiration from Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and the Greek tale of Theseus, Collins has created a brilliantly imagined dystopia, where the Capitol is rich and the rest of the country is kept in abject poverty, where the poor battle to the death for the amusement of the rich. Impressive world-build, breathtaking action and clear philosophical concerns make this volume, the beginning of a planned trilogy, as good as The Giver and more exciting. However, poor copyediting in the first print will distract careful readers--a crying shame. (Science fiction. 11& up)

Kirkus Reviews. (2008, September 1). The hunger games (Book Review). Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/suzanne-collins/the-hunger-games/#review

Library Uses:

a.       This book could be used with lessons that discuss class and status in society.  There are many different countries that still have a very serious class system in place.

b.      Social differences and motivation can also be taught here. Not only are Katniss and Peeta fighting for their life, they are fighting for very different reasons.